Last week, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. vetoed Christensen's signature 2006 legislation: a bill meant to block same-sex couples' ability to legally define their families through custody agreements. The Draper Republican is left scrambling, trying to persuade his peers to override the governor's veto.

It's not the most auspicious beginning to Christensen's fledgling campaign against incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson. And with the conservative lawmaker already established as the sponsor of Utah's same-sex-marriage ban, some wonder why Christensen would bother trying to prop up controversial legislation that probably will not help him with moderate Republican voters.

Like most of Christensen's legislation, HB148 was cast as a parents' rights bill, or, in the alternative, a check on activist judges and gay rights. Inspired by a still-pending custody battle between two former lesbian partners, Christensen wrote the legislation to limit judges' ability to consider the "best interests" of a child when determining custody or visitation. Instead, biological parents alone could determine who could have access to their children.

Stepparents and grandparents bombarded the governor's office with phone calls and letters, afraid Christensen's legislation could end up cutting them out of the lives of children they have raised. And Huntsman responded, rejecting the bill's "undesirable consequences."

Christensen insists the governor's worries are unfounded. In an e-mail sent to his 103 colleagues last week, he urged lawmakers to remember his stated purpose. "This is a public policy decision regarding marriage, parenthood and family that is most appropriately decided by the legislature," he wrote.

Noting that 60 of his peers signed on to a brief filed with the Utah Supreme Court in the custody battle, he added, "Allowing the veto to stand would completely frustrate that effort."

Legislative leaders say Christensen's motives are simple.

"He feels strongly about that bill," said House Speaker Greg Curtis.

But his success is not guaranteed. The bill passed the House with a comfortable, veto-proof margin. But it stalled in the Senate when lawmakers started hearing from child psychologists and others.

Legislators amended the bill in the final hours to include some protections for grandparents, then passed it with a bare majority. The Republican-controlled Legislature has yet to override a Huntsman veto since he took office in January 2005.

"Children have no recourse under this legislation," said Dave Spatafore, a legislative lobbyist who urged lawmakers to change the bill. His 12-year-old grandson, one of four children of his adopted daughter, often stays at his house. The boy doesn't want anything to do with his father.

Senate President John Valentine said Christensen's bill is unlikely to pass muster a second time in the Senate. "That bill came up so late and was walking up to the floor at a very inopportune time," he said. "It would be hard to get it through the Senate on a veto override."

Christensen is undaunted. He did not return phone calls for comment. But legislators acknowledge he is lobbying them intensely to grant his legislation a reprieve.

His former campaign manager, Jeff Hartley, now director of the state Republican Party, said Christensen does not need the legislation to establish his credentials with conservative 2nd Congressional District voters.

"Voters already know what he's done for traditional family values," Hartley said.

And Kelly Patterson, director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, said Christensen's efforts could backfire. While family values and parents' rights are "bread and butter" issues for conservatives, Patterson said Christensen's task is appealing to moderate Republicans who have voted for Matheson.

"As you mobilize a conservative base, you may draw a distinction so clearly that some of the moderate Republicans that might want to look at you won't be as inclined to vote for you once they do . . . " Patterson said. To win the district, "conservative Republicans are not enough."