It would appear that's where the similarity ends.

Shurtleff, a Boy Scout leader, a clean-cut former Mormon missionary who usually wears dark suits with white shirts, has firmly established his credentials as a conservative Utah politician.

Chapman, a former motorcycle gang member and convict who has carefully coiffed, long-flowing, wavy blond locks draped over large, rip-muscled shoulders bulging from cut-off leather vests, liberally uses off-color language that would never pass the lips of the straight-laced Shurtleff.

But the two men came together in an eerie way over the past few months over Chapman's arrest by federal agents for skipping a court hearing several years ago in Mexico. The bond was forged over the abyss of the immigration issue and Shurtleff's concern that an eventual imprisonment in Mexico of the popular A&E television hero could severely damage U.S.-Mexican relations.

Here is one reason for Shurtleff's unease: After Chapman, his brother and son were detained in a U.S. prison last fall while Mexican authorities worked to extradite them, some of America's most shrill anti-immigrant voices were making Chapman a martyr, tapping into America's dark tapestry of bigotry.

Shurtleff has developed close working relationships with prosecutors in Mexico during his seven years as attorney general and believes the immigration issue can best be solved by cooperation between the two countries. That's why he became concerned that Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who is running for the Republican presidential nomination almost exclusively on an anti-illegal immigration agenda, and conservative talk show host Glen Beck had become Chapman's self-appointed champions.

The trouble between Chapman and the Mexican government began a few years ago when he and his bounty-hunting crew went to Mexico to catch serial rapist Andrew Luster, heir to the Max Factor fortune, who had jumped bail and fled the United States. Chapman nabbed Luster in Puerto Vallarta and turned him over to the FBI. Luster, accused in over 80 rapes, is now serving 120 years in federal prison.

But because bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico, Chapman was arrested there. He posted bond and was released, but became a fugitive when he failed to show up for court hearings. When Chapman was arrested by federal agents and held in prison for possible extradition to Mexico, Tancredo actually linked his presidential campaign Web site to Chapman's site.

Because Tancredo and Beck have been so antagonistic toward the Mexican government, Shurtleff believed their participation in the case would not help Chapman with Mexican authorities and would lead to a deterioration in relations between the two countries. Shurtleff worked with a California attorney and the two were in negotiations with Mexican prosectors.

But attorneys for A&E, Chapman's "Dog the Bounty Hunter" network, favored the approach of rallying public opinion against Mexican authorities and their alleged unfair treatment of Chapman. An appeals court in Mexico recently dismissed the case against Chapman on constitutional and procedural grounds.

Shurtleff is glad of that. Now he hopes the real-life soap opera over the past few months has not hindered ongoing relationships in the legal, business and diplomatic communities of the two countries.