A crusader finally has his day

He's been called "a true American hero." He's also been called "arrogant" and "naive." And now, as the US House of Representatives prepares to vote on his campaign finance reform bill today or tomorrow, he may finally be called something else: victorious.

For Rep. Christopher Shays (R) of Connecticut, the struggle to reform the campaign finance system has been almost Sisyphean.

Twice, he and his Democratic cosponsor, Rep. Martin Meehan, have pushed legislation through the House only to watch it die in the Senate.

Then, last summer, when the Senate passed a reform bill, it was the House GOP leadership that balked.

Now, supporters have taken the unusual step of using a discharge petition to force a vote on the issue. And while they admit that the outcome is still far from clear, the momentum, fueled in part by the Enron scandal, has lately seemed to be on their side.

It would be an especially sweet moment for Mr. Shays. Not only has he publicly sparred with his own party leaders on this issue, but he has also gotten less of the press attention and public adulation that has come to his Senate reform counterpart, Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona.

Shays has also had to maneuver his controversial bill through a body that puts a heavier premium on uniformity than the Senate does and is less tolerant of mavericks - though he himself resists that label.

"I am a loyal Republican," insists Shays, whose soft-spoken manner belies his intense, even aggressive approach when it comes to reform. "I would never want to do anything to hurt my party. But I truly want to do what helps my country."

There's no doubt that Shays likes to hew his own path, however. He dispenses with typical Washington formality and insists that everyone - even reporters - call him "Chris." A moderate in a party that has drifted rightward in recent years, he has sometimes been compared to Sen. Jim Jeffords, who last spring defected from the Republican Party to become an Independent. Although Shays says he tried to persuade the Vermont senator to stay with the GOP, he adds, "every moderate understands why Jim Jeffords did what he did."

He also has a long history of gravitating toward reform issues. During his first year in the Connecticut House, on opening day of the session, he introduced a measure requiring roll call votes and open committees, so the public could see how their representatives were voting. The House leaders asked him to withdraw the proposal, he says, and when he refused, it was defeated on a party-line vote. The attention drawn to the issue, however, led the leadership to reintroduce the measure, and it passed - albeit without his name attached.

"That was a moment of truth for me," he says. "And there have been different moments like that."

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