Rep. Deborah Pryce (R) Elected 1992, 7th term
Born:	July 29, 1951, Warren
Home:	Columbus
Education:	OH St. U., B.A. 1973, Capital U. Law Schl., J.D. 1976
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	divorced
Elected  Office:	Franklin Cnty. Municipal Court Judge, 1985-92.
Professional Career:	Admin. Law Judge, OH Dept. of Insurance, 1976; Columbus City Asst. Prosecutor & Asst. City Atty., 1978-85; Practicing atty., 1992.
DC Office	204 CHOB20515, 202-225-2015; Web site: www.house.gov/pryce
State Offices	Columbus, 614-469-5614.
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Columbus, smack in the center of Ohio, was founded in 1812 to be the state capital. Its flat-domed Capitol at Broad and High, with the statue of William McKinley out front, is surrounded by high-rises, public and private, while the city has been growing in all directions into the countryside, and now is on the verge of becoming a large metropolis. It is the headquarters of state government and Ohio State, one of the nation's largest universities. It is the headquarters of the Batelle Memorial Institute, the think tank that helped invent compact discs, office copy machines and the universal product code; a major industry here is data retrieval. Columbus, which has kept annexing suburbs, is now Ohio's largest central city by far, with 728,000 people in 2000; Franklin County topped 1 million in 2000 and the metro area extends into formerly rural counties. Columbus is rapidly building civic landmarks--the Center of Science and Industry on the riverfront, the Jerome Schottenstein Center for sports and concerts at OSU, a hockey stadium for the Columbus Blue Jackets and the nation's first stadium built for a professional soccer team, the Columbus Crew. And there is residential building downtown in thriving entertainment districts. With the nation's highest proportion of residents age 25 to 34, Columbus has been attracting young professionals and immigrants more than any other Ohio city and continues to be a prime test market for products of all kinds.

The 15th Congressional District of Ohio includes all of Columbus except the east side, plus southern and western Franklin County and once-rural Madison and Union Counties directly to the west. Union County is where Honda built a motorcycle plant in 1979 and an auto assembly plant in 1982; Honda has spent $6 billion there and in 2004 announced a new $123 million paint facility. The 15th includes white working class areas on the south side of the city and in nearby Grove City, and the Ohio State University campus. Politically, these Democratic areas have long been more than balanced by the heavily Republican suburb of Upper Arlington, across the Olentangy River from Ohio State, and by Republican subdivisions sprouting up in rural land between the old villages. But Columbus was the scene of a highly successful registration and turnout drive by Democrats in 2004, and Columbus and Franklin County went Democrat. The 15th District as a whole, 52% for George W. Bush in 2000, gave him only a 50.3% majority in 2004.

The congresswoman from the 15th District is Deborah Pryce, a Republican first elected in 1992. Pryce grew up in Warren, graduated from Ohio State and Capital University law school, worked in state government and as a city prosecutor, and was elected municipal court judge in 1985. In 1992, when incumbent Chalmers Wylie retired after 26 years, Pryce ran for the House. She was unopposed in the primary but had tough competition in the general from Democrat Richard Cordray and from anti-abortion independent Linda Reidelbach. Pryce talked much about congressional reform--term limits, rotating chairmanships, line-item veto--and called for limiting annual spending increases to 3%. She won with 44% of the vote to Cordray's 38% and Reidelbach's 18%.

In the House, Pryce has a voting record that is mostly conservative on economic and foreign issues, more moderate on cultural issues. In her first term she was elected interim president of her Republican class and helped to write the Contract with America. Pryce has been particularly interested in issues relating to children, adoption and cancer. Her adoptive daughter developed cancer in September 1998 and died at age nine in September 1999; she adopted a newborn in 2002. Pryce started Hope Street Kids, an organization to raise funds for cancer research, using funds donated in memory of her daughter. She is co-chairwoman of the House Cancer Working Group and sponsored a bill in 2001 to require private insurers to provide coverage of routine patient costs of cancer patients who qualify to participate in a clinical trial. She sponsored grants to help pediatric palliative care programs and to give parents of children with cancer access to both curative and palliative care; this was included in the 2003 Medicare/prescription drug act.

Pryce is chairman of the Republican Conference, the number four position in the Republican leadership, tasked with disseminating House Republicans' message. She was elected conference secretary in July 1997 and in November 2000 she was elected conference vice chair without opposition. In November 2002, after Conference Chairman J.C. Watts retired, she was elected to his post, with 133 votes to 61 for J.D. Hayworth and 28 for Jim Ryun. Although in charge of the party's message, Pryce has not often been seen on national television or quoted in national print media. "Controversy is part of politics, but not the part I like to participate in. Do I like being behind the scenes better than out in front? Yes. I work better. I'm more effective that way. I'm way more comfortable." She plays more of an inside role, keeping Republicans, especially moderates, together; Pryce argues for maintaining party unity and accepting bills with conservative provisions, to keep the process moving, knowing that the Senate or the administration may modify things. She complained when there were no women members standing behind George W. Bush when he signed the partial-birth abortion bill in November 2003. In March 2004 she accepted the assignment of leading attacks by House Republicans on John Kerry.

As a member of the Rules Committee, Pryce did not have much occasion to shepherd legislation to passage. In 2000 she inserted into an appropriation $235 million for graduate medical programs at children's hospitals; Children's Hospital of Columbus stood to get $5 million. She got in the corporate tax bill a provision ending the double taxation of attorney's fees, which had been taxable for both the client and the lawyer.

In January 2005 Pryce left the Rules Committee and returned to the Financial Services Committee; one reason she did was that Speaker Dennis Hastert decreed that House Republicans' six-year term limit did not apply to Rules Chairman David Dreier. Pryce was credited for her former service and became fourth ranking Republican in seniority and became chairman of the Domestic and International Monetary Policy Subcommittee. She has been mentioned as a possible successor to Financial Services Chairman Mike Oxley, who reaches the end of his six years in January 2007; but she would have to prevail against the claims of Louisiana's Richard Baker, who has more seniority.

Pryce has won reelection easily. In 2004 she ran well ahead of George W. Bush and won 60%-40%.

Committees

• Republican Conference Chairman
.
• Financial Services (4th of 37 R): Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade & Technology (Chmn.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	15	5	0	9	100	55	100	83	70	61	--
2003	0	--	0	15	--	59	100	76	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	9%	--	84%		27%	--	72%
Social	49%	--	51%		51%	--	48%
Foreign	31%	--	65%		23%	--	76%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Deborah Pryce (R)	166,520	60%	$1,008,306
	Mark Brown (D)	110,915	40%
2004 primary	Deborah Pryce (R)	36,860	84%
	Charlie Morrison (R)	7,254	16%
2002 general	Deborah Pryce (R)	108,193	67%	$872,928
	Mark Brown (D)	54,286	33%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (68%); 1998 (66%); 1996 (71%); 1994 (71%); 1992 (44%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 154,105 (50%) Kerry (D) 151,869 (50%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 117,175 (52%) Gore (D) 98,204 (44%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fifteenth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 1
• District Size: 1,182 square miles
• Population in 2000: 630,730; 91.3% urban; 8.8% rural
• Median Household Income: $43,885; 10.8% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 19.8% blue collar; 66.3% white collar; 13.9% gray collar; 11.6% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 85.2% White, 7.2% Black, 3.3% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.7% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 2.3% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 18.5% German, 10.4% Irish, 8.0% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.