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WASHINGTON - Call him the new Chris Cannon.
Not the fiery politician of the past, nor the rabid critic or the bomb-throwing partisan.
This Rep. Cannon is detail-oriented. He gives complex explanations about his convictions and talks at length about big issues. Sound bites aren't his thing anymore.
It's a transformation from the guy who eight years ago broached the idea of impeaching Vice President Al Gore along with President Clinton during the politically heated days of Monica-gate. Clinton's "reckless behavior has emboldened our enemies," Republican Cannon charged at the time. Democrats need to be converted, he said, and it was his mission.
The new Chris Cannon walks into the House chamber for a vote and walks out with Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay Massachusetts Democrat, and introduces him to a reporter to talk about how the two congressmen agree on boosting the economy while closing the gap between rich and poor.
The old Chris Cannon came to Congress in 1996; the new one wants to stay there.
Cannon, 55 - now facing what he agrees is the toughest primary race of his tenure - prefers working behind the scenes. It's not enough to spout bile on TV or the House floor, Cannon says. It's working with colleagues to get things done.
It's "an unbelievable change," says Chris MacKay, Cannon's former chief of staff. "He's come to understand that he can't just take a position, throw a flag in the ground and maintain that position. He tries to find a position that accomplishes what he wants to accomplish but also accomplish what others want as well."
That's the effect of 10 years in the U.S. House. And of life.
Cannon fully admits that much of his tone changed in 2004, when his daughter was rediagnosed with a rare form of cancer they thought she had beat. Rachel Cannon died in January 2005.
"It's significantly affected me," Cannon says. "It's made me much more passionate about getting things done that will make the world a better place."
That's driven much of Cannon's work on cancer-related legislation, including his new issue of releasing scientific studies to the world and not through a costly journal.
Behind the scenes work, though, doesn't make many headlines. And it doesn't work well for sound bites.
Cannon admits he thought about not running again for office but decided that he's still wielding influence for Utah, and the state needs someone with some seniority.
"The cost to replace me in Congress is high," Cannon says, "so I feel a really high level of commitment."
Being nuanced, though, has also hurt Cannon, forcing him into a GOP battle against water and land developer John Jacob, who is turning the primary election into a referendum on the highly contentious debate over immigration reform.
Cannon's immigration position isn't simple. He backs President Bush's call for a guest worker program and has worked to pass legislation allowing in-state tuition for children of undocumented workers. He says he opposes blanket citizenship for those in the country illegally but believes it impossible and economically devastating to send 11 million undocumented immigrants home.
To his detractors, that makes Cannon "pro-amnesty" - a dirty label to conservatives. He vehemently disputes the tag, but it's not something easily explained away in a 30-second ad.
"You can't do it," Cannon says. "You have to say, look here's my record; I don't support amnesty."
Cannon seems to have no trouble taking the hard-right conservative line on most other issues. He wants to scrap the federal Department of Education (and even put up a Web site to attract support), he stands firm that tax cuts are helping the economy and last week even voted against a spending bill for the war on terror because he said it was stuffed with too many pork-barrel projects.
On the forefront: Cannon could have stayed further away from the immigration issue; it wasn't a talking point for many members of Congress before this year. But Cannon wanted in from the beginning.
"Would I like to be watching on the sidelines?" Cannon asks himself as he enters the Rayburn Office Building. "No," he answers emphatically. "The fact is I want to be engaged in the issues of the time."
Cannon, along with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, pushed legislation to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition and then obtain legal residency. And Cannon introduced his "Ag Jobs" bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the country if they can show they are employed in farm labor.
President Bush embraced Cannon's proposal in 2004, but critics quickly challenged it as clear amnesty for lawbreakers. Groups, such as anti-illegal immigration Team America PAC, say Cannon's voted repeatedly for rewarding those breaking immigration laws and often bring up a comment he once made about how in Utah, people don't differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants.
Despite ratings as one of the more conservative members of the House (97 percent American Conservative Union score) and a solid voting record with his leaders (voted 96 percent with his party), Cannon is assailed by some who would normally be in his base. Chalk it up to immigration.
"It's an environment that's . . . a little toxic," Cannon says.
Beyond immigration: While he says he doesn't mind that immigration has been the centerpiece of this primary contest, he also wants to be known for his other work. In keeping with his complex persona, one of his proudest accomplishments is the "Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act," to block taxation of the Internet and e-mail.
As chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Cannon heads up legislation such as reform of class-action litigation and the new bankruptcy law. Cannon is the only House member from Utah to hold a chairmanship.
He admits it can be boringly titled but argues that the topics are sexy in some ways, too. The future of governing, he says, is through interstate compacts overseen by his subcommittee and not centralized decision-making.
Again, it's the new, detailed Cannon - a good thing, says House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
"What I can say is, in Congress there are workhorses and showhorses," Sensenbrenner says. "Chris Cannon is the workhorse. Workhorses get things done in Congress."
Chris Cannon
Age:55
Family: Wife, Claudia; eight children
Education: Bachelor's degree and a law degree from Brigham Young University
Experience: Five terms in U.S. House; chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law; chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus
Professional: Owns Cannon Industries Inc., a venture-capital firm