Stivers announces Ohio run

Ohio GOP state Sen. Steve Stivers touted his military service Monday in announcing his bid to succeed retiring Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) in Ohio’s 15th district congressional seat.

“When called to duty in the Middle East, I answered the call,” Stivers said from state GOP headquarters in Columbus.

{mosads}“Now residents of Central Ohio, my party and my nation are calling me to service — this time as a member of the United States House of Representatives,” said Stivers, who served nearly a year in Operation Iraqi Freedom in Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar and Djibouti as a lieutenant colonel.

“I’m honored to take on this battle and I look forward to the opportunity to serve,” he said.

Stivers will face a veteran Democratic candidate in Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, who nearly unseated Pryce last year during an expensive and at times nasty campaign.

Pryce announced her retirement from Congress this summer, citing the need to be with her young daughter and aging parents.

The 2008 race for the Columbus-area district is shaping up to be another slugfest, as reflected Monday by the quick comments issued by partisan campaign committees.

“Thanks to the Democrat-led Congress, the rapidly deteriorating situation in Washington is proving to be a motivating factor for Republican candidates,” said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Steve Stivers enters the race as one of the top Republican candidates in the country, and if I’m the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee], I’m wondering how much money it will take to repair Mary Jo Kilroy’s already tattered image.”

Ryan Rudminer, spokesman for the DCCC, countered, “Mary Jo Kilroy represents change and knows what it means to put Ohio families first by fighting for affordable healthcare, strengthening the local economy and ending the abuses of predatory lending.”

He described Stivers as an ally to unpopular former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft (R) and a former “paid lobbyist.” Sending him to Congress “isn’t going solve problems confronting Ohio families,” Rudminer said.