(Tallahassee, Florida) Republicans say they are confident of retaking the House seat lost to Democrats following the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley who was implicated in a scandal involving lurid emails to congressional pages.

Foley abruptly resigned Sept. 29, 2006 after the first of the emails was made public.

The Republican congressman e-mailed one former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchanges. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.

The initial correspondence took place in August 2005 after the boy gave Foley a handwritten thank you note before returning to Louisiana.

In his exchanges with the boy, Foley asked how old he was, what he wanted for his upcoming birthday, how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and for a photo.

Other emails were reportedly more suggestive, but Foley denied doing anything wrong.

Despite Foley’s resignation the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation that led to changes in the page program. A probe by the FBI and Florida officials went nowhere.

Foley was considered a moderate Republican.

In 2000 he introduced legislation to expand the federal government’s role in investigating and prosecuting crimes based on sexual orientation, religion, gender or ethnicity.

Foley voted against his party in 2004 and again this year to thwart a federal amendment to the Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage.

Unmarried, questions about Foley’s sexuality had circulated for several years.

In May 2003, he took the unusual step of calling a news conference to denounce a report in a South Florida alternative newspaper that he is gay. Foley refused to answer questions about the subject, saying his sexual orientation had nothing to do with is duties as a lawmaker.

In November 2006 the seat was won by Democrat Tim Mahoney.