Newsweek:Michael Schiavo on the Campaign Trail

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The fireworks began before the candidates' debate even started. Last week Michael Schiavo took a seat only 15 feet away from Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave—all the better to taunt her. She had been an outspoken advocate of what Schiavo considered government intrusion in his wife Terri's right-to-die case last year. When Musgrave's camp objected to Schiavo's presence, one of the event hosts tried, unsuccessfully, to have a cop force him to change seats. Though Musgrave wasn't asked about Terri during the debate, Schiavo had already met his goal—evoking his wife's case, and the privacy concerns it raised, for the press and the public. "What you went through is the epitome of what's wrong with the country," one man told him afterward.


The issues dominating this election season remain Iraq, terrorism and various scandals, but the Schiavo matter may prove to be a sleeper issue. It has cropped up in contests across the country—from the Florida governor's race to close congressional campaigns in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and points west. Schiavo himself has helped stoke the debate by campaigning for candidates who backed his position on Terri's case and lambasting those who opposed him. Using funds raised by TerriPAC, a political committee he founded last year, he has also given 15 candidates a total of $20,000. All of it is aimed at driving home his message: "Government should not interfere with personal matters," says Schiavo, who still seethes at the memory of Congress's and President Bush's attempts to block removal of Terri's feeding tube.

After mourning Terri's death, Schiavo had planned to move on with his life (he has a second wife and two kids). But in the course of writing a book about the case, he reviewed news footage that he'd never seen from the height of the controversy. He became incensed all over again—and decided to do something about it, teaming up with Democratic consultant Derek Newton. Schiavo's hardly an electrifying speaker, and he mangles names on the stump. But he has an ordinary-guy appeal and a wrenching tale. Formerly a Republican, he's now a Democrat, though he has supported candidates from both parties. As Election Day nears, he's trying to squeeze in one more round of campaign stops, in response to requests from candidates in Georgia, Iowa and Virginia. And after Nov. 7? "On to 2008," he says. An activist has been born.

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