MARYSVILLE – U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus), who barely survived the Ohio GOP’s 2006 bloodbath, said this year’s environment for Republicans is better than it was two years ago.

Pryce won re-election in 2006 by 1,055 votes, amid Gov. Bob Taft’s single-digit popularity, Tom Noe’s scandals, and U.S. Rep. Bob Ney’s (R-Heath) resignation and her with U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who was embroiled in a page-sex solicitation scandal that year. The absence of those men makes 2008 a better year to run in, she said.

"We had a very tough year, this is not that year,” Pryce said.  “I don’t think that the sins of some of my other colleagues rubbed off on me as much as some of the Democrats thought they would.”

Pryce said she could have run this year and beat Mary Jo Kilroy again, but decided that it was time to leave politics and pass the torch to someone else. Pryce said Kilroy (D-Columbus) was and is far too liberal to be elected in the 15th Congressional District.

“I think she’s an extremely liberal, partisan politician,” Pryce said. “She has very, very left-leaning ideals. Her allegiance will be dead-on with Nancy Pelosi and that’s just not the tenor of the political sentiment of this district.”

Pryce, elected in 1992, said the demographics have shifted under the Republican Party’s feet. At the same time Congress has become increasingly partisan as each party relies on thin majorities to drive its agenda.