It's hard not to notice U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays these days. At any time, he might be on national TV news and talk shows, expounding on anything from his support for the war in Iraq to his disgust with the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

Can this be the Republican the voters of the 4th Congressional District elected to represent them 19 years ago?

The same person who as a young man was a conscientious objector to serving in the Vietnam War and 40 years later has evolved into a strong supporter for the U.S. war in Iraq ? The same man known for trying to clean up decaying inner-city housing? Who fought for gun control? Who lobbied for a national service program? To some, Shays, who turns 61 next month, is a powerful asset to the district in Washington, someone who has paid his dues while gaining national political stature — and influence. To others, he has betrayed his independent roots, becoming the ultimate Beltway insider, out of touch with the everyday concerns of constituents. But no matter how his supporters or critics label him, there is no question the Bridgeport resident has expanded his range of concerns since he joined Congress in 1987.

A conscientious objector to military service during the Vietnam War, Shays said he agonized over, but ultimately voted to approve, the U.S.-led Desert Storm assault against Iraq 's invasion of Kuwait in 1991.

A candidate who ran for Congress determined to "put our financial house in order" amid rising federal budget deficits, Shays has endorsed higher military spending.

And perhaps most conspicuously, Shays has become an authority on terrorism who also is a staunch defender of the current U.S. war in Iraq , though he recently called for setting a pullout timetable for American forces.

Now, as he seeks an 11th term this year, Shays is under more scrutiny than ever, but not just because of his higher profile.

The spotlight is on the 4th District because Democrats have what experts consider a solid chance to capture the seat, which has been in GOP hands since 1969, as part of their effort to regain control of the House of Representatives they lost in 1994. The Democrats need to take back 15 seats nationally to claim a majority in the 435-member body.

Largely because of waning public support for the war, Democrats — with former Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell as their standard-bearer — think they can win the seat Nov. 7.

Shays has supported the Bush administration drive to topple Saddam Hussein even before the 2003 invasion of Iraq .

After his first trip to Iraq shortly after the U.S.-led forces quickly overthrew Saddam's regime, Shays predicted that decades henceforth "the operation will be studied with a great amount of awe."

Even so, he acknowledged the effort would be marred if stability could not be established in Iraq .

As his first campaign against Farrell heated up a year and a half later in 2004, Shays returned from his sixth trip to Iraq and said conditions there were "headed in the right direction."

Then, last month, after his 14th trip to Iraq , Shays asked the Bush administration to set a timetable for Iraqis to assume "the bulk of the heavy lifting" from the 135,000 U.S. troops deployed.

It prompted charges that Shays is trying to shift gears away from his support for the war because of its unpopularity in the state — a factor widely cited in last month's Democratic primary defeat of U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman at the hands of anti-war newcomer Ned Lamont.

Shays, however, described his call for a pullout as a means to motivate Iraqis to create a united and peaceful democratic state.

"If I saw action — a real strong political will to take on the militias, I wouldn't have set deadlines," he said, a few days after his revised stance hit the news. "But they are not moving, they are treading water and we can't do that while our men and women are dying in Iraq."

Still, Farrell said Shays' motivation was "purely political" designed to attract voters.

"He's thrown out the word 'timetable' because he feels it will afford him some appeasement from voters who are so frustrated by his position," she said.

Farrell also said she thinks the Republican victory that put Shays in the majority brought out a more conservative side of him that has grown stronger.

"I think [former Republican House Speaker] Newt Gingrich awakened the more conservative side of Chris," said Farrell, who came within 4 percentage points of unseating Shays in their first matchup.

And she suggested that spending so much time in Washington has put him out of touch with his district.

Farrell's campaign likes to note that Congressional Quarterly shows Shays voting with the current president 82 percent in 2002. Though Shays' agreement with Bush fell to 56.2 percent last year, it's still higher than the 32 percent rate at which he supported President Reagan's initiatives in 1987. During the Clinton years, his rate of agreement with the president ranged from 44 to 57 percent.

Meanwhile, the Shays campaign staff likes to point to ratings from political handicappers like the National Journal that place Shays closer to the middle of the political spectrum — much where he has been throughout a political career that began as a state representative from Stamford in 1974.

Over that period, Shays has continued to advocate a woman's right to choose, although he refuses to defend late-term abortions, and favors gun control. He remains an ardent environmentalist, in contrast to others in his party.

And throughout his career, he's retained a reputation for integrity and been provoked to criticize the ethics of other officials, ranging from now-jailed former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim to indicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas .

But even Shays acknowledged that his perspectives are different from those he had at age 20 or so.

"I have seen a lot in those 40 years that have shaped my life," he said in an interview last week.

As an idealistic and somewhat pacifistic young man, the newlywed Shays and his high school sweetheart and wife Betsi were volunteers with the Peace Corps in Fiji .

But Shays — who grew up as a Christian Scientist but said last week that he no longer adheres strictly to its practices — said his political journey has prompted him to reconsider many of the positions he held in his youth.

Recalling his days as a young state legislator, Shays remembered the anguish suffered by the family of Sandy Hoyt, a Stamford teenager brutally murdered, but whose killer received a "ridiculously short" sentence in his eyes. The Hoyts, he said, could not believe they could not address the court to plead for a longer sentence.

He said it was a sobering experience that not only pushed him to fight for victims' rights but also softened his opposition to the death penalty to the point where he would no longer vote against a bill simply because the measure permitted execution.

He said becoming a parent — his daughter, Jeramy, a 27-year-old student in environmental law in a combined program at Vermont Law School and Yale University — was also a key development in his emotional maturity.

"I constantly learn new things that shape how I think and act," he reflected. Sometimes, he said, information builds up over time, and at other times "you get slapped by events."

Shays' confronted his aversion to war after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990. During the runup to the debate on whether to authorize United States ' intervention, he was confronted by calls from the parents of his state House successor, Christopher Burnham, a Marine reservist who would be called up, not to support the authorization. But Shays said Burnham himself lobbied the congressman to vote for it, as he eventually did.

After his initial stint on the House Budget Committee ended in the late 1990s, Shays sought a new role. With the 1983 attacks on U.S. Marines in Beirut and the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 as backdrops, Shays said he sought a legislative role that would allow him to examine terrorism, feeling that it was underexplored. Shays said that in his role as head of the National Security Subcommittee of the Government Reform Committee, he was growing increasingly alarmed about the threat of terrorism before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But those events, Shays said, became a defining moment for him.

"It's what I call growing up," he said of the ways he has changed over the last five years.

But Farrell hopes to win over voters on the issue of Iraq , as polls have shown shrinking public support.

"Iraq is, in fact, never going to result in greater safety for our citizens at home," she said.

Despite Shays' stance on Iraq, Sacred Heart University politics Professor Gary L. Rose said the congressman remains a classic so-called "Rockefeller Republican," somewhat conservative on fiscal issues — he supported the Bush tax cuts — and more liberal on social issues.

"He's a very specific type of congressman, which is in the tradition of a Connecticut Republican," Rose said. While Republicans of a similar stripe may be rare throughout the rest of the nation, he said they remain a force in the Northeast, epitomized by figures such as former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman to Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in Maine.

Shays' moderate positions on social issues and "Americans first, Republicans second" attitude keep constituents like Bill Meyer of Westport, a 77-year-old retired marketing executive who met Shays as a 1987 candidate and is now a close friend, resolutely in the incumbent's corner.

"He has a way of listening to people and taking their concerns seriously," said Meyer, who also spearheaded a Republican effort for Farrell's re-election as the town's first selectwoman in 2001.

Meyer said he'd be just as protective of Farrell if Shays — who has never lived in Westport — had sought to challenge her for her post.

Those who work with Shays say his recent high national profile doesn't mean he's neglected issues important to his district and state.

Charles Tisdale, the executive director for Action for Bridgeport Community Development, said Shays has a long history of concern for the poor.

"He was always concerned about people who didn't have means to support themselves," said Tisdale, who said he's been a friend of Shays' for 20 years.

Over the years, he said, the congressman has fought to save funds for anti-poverty agencies, such as ABCD, and in recent weeks helped deliver an additional $455,000 for job-training programs.

Shays has also worked closely with business-development interests in the 4th District.

Joseph McGee, a vice president of the Business Council of Fairfield County, said Shays actively promotes efforts to assure the economic vitality of his district's coastal cities on issues ranging from workforce development to technology to transportation. "We see him as very engaged in the key issues in the district," said McGee.

Chief of staff to Shays' Republican predecessor, the late Stewart B. McKinney, McGee said that some of Shays' current stances reflect the nation's altered interests.

"All congressmen were focused on domestic issues until there was an Iraq ," he said.

Tisdale said Shays' career is typical for someone who's accumulated congressional seniority.

"The more seniority you have, the more responsibility you have," he said.

But he said the current hot campaign between Shays and Farrell is representative of the democracy that makes this nation special.

"It's great that people look at the candidates," he said. "That's what makes us strong."