Lt. Gov. Nancy S. Wyman

Nancy S. Wyman is the first Democratic woman to serve as lieutenant governor. Dannel Malloy aggressively pursued the popular Wyman to forgo an easy re-election campaign for comptroller and team with him prior to the Democratic nominating convention and primary.

Malloy promised to treat Wyman as a partner, helping her carve out a role beyond the traditional one of presiding over the sessions of the state Senate. She served as co-chair of Malloy's transition team with the governor's chief of staff, Timothy F. Bannon.

Wyman was the first woman to hold the office of comptroller, a position created in 1786. The comptroller is responsible for overseeing health and retirement benefits for 200,000 state employees and retirees, as well as providing a monthly and year-end analysis of the state's finances.

Her role as a fiscal monitor has established Wyman in recent years as a voice of caution in the Democratic Party on the state's unfunded liabilities for pensions and retiree health care. She has been a critic of the state's early-retirement plans, saying the budget savings are shortlived and the costs to the pension fund are considerable.

In an effort to cut health costs, Wyman has opened the state's Municipal Employee's Health Insurance Program to Connecticut's small businesses, municipalities and non-profit organizations. She is the co-chair of the SustiNet Health Partnership board of directors, which had to recommend ways to control costs and improve access to health care by Jan. 1, 2011.

Wyman was elected comptroller in 1994. With the move of Richard Blumenthal from attorney general to the U.S. Senate, Wyman became longest serving statewide constitutional officer. Oliver Wolcott, the second comptroller, was elected governor in 1796, but the office has been a weak springboard for the past century. Her predecessor, William Curry, did win the Democratic nomination for governor in 1994, but he lost to Republican John G. Rowland.

Previous office: Comptroller, 1995 to 2011; state House of Representatives,1987 to 1995. In the House, Wyman was co-chair of the Education Committee. She also was a member of the Tolland Board of Education.

Personal: Wyman is married to Michael Wyman, the Democratic registrar of voters in Tolland, where they reside. They have two daughters and five grandchildren.