Deborah Pryce



Deborah D. "Deb" Pryce, a Republican, represented the 15th Congressional District of Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993-2008. (map)

Iraq War
Pryce voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 that started the Iraq War.

Environmental record
For more information on environmental legislation, see the Energy and Environment Policy Portal

Contributions to Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio)
In November 2005, Pryce -- along with Ohio GOP representatives Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) and David Hobson (R-Ohio) -- helped organize a fundraiser for Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who later resigned from Congress and was indicted on federal charges. Pryce contributed $2,000 "for Ney’s 2006 re-election bid, not a legal-defense fund Ney is forming." However, when Ney abandoned his campaign in August 2006, federal law allowed him to use his leftover campaign funds to pay his legal bills. 

Contributions to Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.)
On October 2, 2006, after the Mark Foley congressional page scandal erupted, Pryce returned campaign contributions from Foley's PAC. In addition, she stated that, "anyone who was aware of these instant messages needs to take responsibility. Anybody who had knowledge of that needs to step down." Pryce maintained that, before the public release of Foley's salacious messages, she was unaware of Foley's overtures toward congressional pages. , . However, when a magazine reporter asked Pryce a month earlier to list her friends in Washington, she included Foley as one of them. After the Foley scandal broke, Pryce said, "Apparently I did not know Mark Foley at all. Mark Foley was a friend of mine, but he was a friend of everybody. Mark Foley is very gregarious. We spent some time together but I, just like someone you know for a long time surprises you, he surprised everyone." She also called Foley "sick," a "predator," and "disgusting".


 * Read a full account of the Mark Foley page scandal

Pryce will not seek reelection in 2008
On August 15, 2007, sources within the GOP stated that Pryce would announce that she would not seek reelection. This was a surprising development, as even though Pryce was an eighth term incumbent, she was only 56 years old, younger than many of the other retirees.

Sources attributed Pryce's newly adopted daughter as an important factor in her decision. Other factors included the increasingly difficult atmosphere for Republicans in her district; in 2006, Pryce won a narrow 51%-49% victory over Mary Jo Kilroy, who would be running again in 2008.

Background
Pryce was born July 29, 1951. Pryce is a 1973 graduate of Ohio State University and a 1976 graduate of Capital University Law School. Prior to serving in Congress, Pryce was the presiding judge in the Franklin County Municipal Court.

Congressional career
Pryce currently serves as Chairman of the House Republican Conference, which is the fourth-highest position in the United States House of Representatives. This position has been held by J.C. Watts, Dick Cheney and Jack Kemp, among others. Pryce is a moderate Republican and is a member of The Republican Main Street Partnership, Republicans For Environmental Protection, The Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans For Choice and The Wish List (a group of pro-choice women Republicans).

2006 elections
In 2006, the Democrats nominated Mary Jo Kilroy to face Pryce in her November 2006 bid for reelection. (See U.S. congressional elections in 2006) Pryce's race against Kilroy was very close, as she held a lead of 3,536 votes after an initial count. The count did not, however, take into account 19,000 absentee and provisional ballots from the district. 

Complete tallies found Pryce winning rural Ohio Madison and Union counties but losing her portion of Franklin County (urban Columbus) by several thousand votes. Pryce ended Election Night 1,055 votes ahead of Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy, but the difference was within a half-percentage point, which triggered an automatic recount under Ohio law.

After the mandatory recount resulted in 110,739 Pryce votes to 109,677 for Kilroy, Pryce was certified the winner. 

In an article titled "Pork No Longer Paves the Way to Reelection," the Amherst Times cited Deborah Pryce as a counterexample of that thesis:

"[In] several races . . . the ability to bring home hundreds of federal projects might have made enough of a difference to withstand a Democratic tide. Representative Deborah Pryce of Ohio, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, issued dozens of news releases over the last 18 months boasting of the projects she brought home to a district that is considered evenly divided between the two parties[:] $2.27 million to convert a mountain of garbage into a green energy center, $1.1 million to help keep residents of a fast-growing suburb from having to pay more in user fees for a new sewage system, and the latest installment in $2.7 million in federal disbursements to 'evaluate freeze-dried berries for their ability to inhibit cancer.' . . . [At one point] Ms. Pryce’s district stood to get the largest single earmark in Ohio — $1.75 million for a health research institute. In total, the Columbus area lined up about $4.5 million in special money. . . . By comparison, Portland, Ore. — a similar-sized metropolitan area with no contested Congressional seats — was to receive $625,000 in earmarks."

Money in politics
cid=N00003504&cycle=2008

Committee assignments in the 110th Congress (2007-2008)

 * House Committee on Financial Services
 * Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
 * Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises -Ranking

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

 * House Committee on Financial Services
 * Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy Trade and Technology - Chair

Coalitions and Caucuses

 * Republican Women Leaders Forum, 1998-2000
 * Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues
 * Co-Chair, Congressional Urban Caucus
 * Co-Chair, House Cancer Caucus
 * Chair, House Republican Conference
 * Secretary, House Republican Conference
 * Internet Caucus
 * House Republican Research Committee's Task Force on Victim's Rights
 * Mainstream Conservative Alliance
 * Vice Chair, National Republican Campaign Committee
 * Vice-Chair, National Republican Congressional Committee

Boards and other Affiliations

 * Member, Coalition for Adoption
 * Member, Columbus Bar Association
 * Member, Columbus Bar Foundation
 * Member, Congressional Children's Working Group
 * Member, Dave Thomas Center for Adoption Law Advisory Board
 * Member, Hope Street Kids Foundation
 * Member, Indianola Presbyterian Church
 * Member, Board, National Center for Adoption Law and Policy, Capital University Law School, Columbus
 * Member, Board of Trustees, National Fund for the United States Botanic Gardens
 * Member, Republican Task Force on Families and Children.

Contact
DC Office: 204 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 202-225-2015 Fax: 202-225-3529 Web Email Website

District Office- Columbus: 500 South Front Street, Suite 1130 Columbus, OH 43215 Phone: 614-469-5614 Fax: 614-469-7469

Resources

 * Official website
 * Open Secrets - 2006 congressional races database

Articles

 * Sabrina Eaton, "Letter by Pryce Revealed in Indian Casino Scandal," Cleveland Plan Dealer, November 4, 2005.
 * BC, "Another One Bites the Dust," AMERICAblog, August 16, 2007.

Local blogs and discussion sites

 * Psychobilly Democrat
 * Franklin County Young Democrats
 * As Ohio Goes
 * Writes Like She Talks