With friends like hers, Republican Rep. Deborah Pryce hardly needs opponents. Among her Republican colleagues, Rep. Bob Ney is mired in scandal, and both Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and President Bush are scoring historic lows in state approval polls. The seven-term congresswoman has always coasted to re-election, but this year, in addition to her party's ills, she is facing a tough opponent in Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy, the twice-elected commissioner of Franklin County, which includes Columbus and makes up 87 percent of Pryce's district. The race has all the makings of a nail-biter. Pryce, as chairman of the Republican Conference, the fourth-highest House Republican position, is formidable herself. Her politics–conservative on economic and foreign policy issues but supportive of abortion rights and opposed to a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage–fit well in her district. She is also a prodigious fundraiser, with $1.5 million in cash on hand as of mid-April, compared with Kilroy's $352,000. Besides grappling with Kilroy, Republicans are trying to prevent a conservative independent, Charles Morrison, from getting on the ballot and possibly siphoning votes from Pryce.