Onondaga County’s Republican Election Commissioner is settling into his new role after nearly a month on the job. Kevin Ryan is no stranger to the board of elections.
Ryan was appointed after Republican Onondaga County lawmakers declined to retain Michele Sardo for a fifth two-year term. He said Republicans are seeking better outreach and cooperation with party leaders, much like Democratic commissioner Dustin Czarny.
“Dustin is very engaged with the Democratic Party and I think that a lot of the reason I'm here is because I think that there was a perception that Michelle wasn't," Ryan said. "As a committee chair. I've been involved in the Republican Committee process for a long time.”
Ryan is an attorney who also serves as the Syracuse GOP party chairman. He said Republicans began discussing a possible change in board leadership in 2023, well before the state sent workers last fall to help the office process a backlog of voter registration applications. It cleared up in a few days, but the state also admonished commissioners of a lack of urgency, oversight, and management of staff. Kevin Ryan said that made him only more eager to take on the job.
“The state was very clear in what they perceived to be the deficiencies with the office and I know that our party leadership was very clear on what they wanted to see out of the Republican Commissioner," Ryan said. "As I sit here, I'm not surprised by what I found because I think it's consistent with the expectations I had going in.”
Ryan said so far, he’s getting along with his Democratic counterpart, even if they don’t agree politically.
“My mantra is that you can disagree without being disagreeable, and that's something that I carry in my professional and social relationships," Ryan said. "Quite candidly, if you know anything about my family, in my family relationships too, given the fact that many of them are misguided Democrats and I'm a Republican.”
Kevin Ryan’s uncle, Ed Ryan, served as a Democratic county legislator for 32 years, including minority leader, before becoming elections commissioner. He retired from that post in 2012 and was succeeded by current commissioner Dustin Czarny. Kevin’s younger brother Chris was just elected to the state senate after more than a decade as county legislator.
