An Ohio representative appears ready to make congressional history.

Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-15, Columbus) is the favorite to become chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, the Number-Four position in the Republican House leadership ranks.

If she is elected next week, she will become the highest-ranking Republican woman ever in Congress.

She has been campaigning since July to replace Oklahoma Representative J.C. Watts, who has been conference chairman for the last four years.

Pryce says she has more than half the votes she needs to win.

Opposing her are Representatives J.D. Hayworth of Arizona and Jim Ryun of Kansas. Both are conservative congressmen who have served fewer years in Congress than Pryce, who was re-elected Tuesday to her sixth term.

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