"He's sure of himself," says James Harry Wilson. "He's always been very sensible. He's always been very mature about his decisions,"

"And," he adds, "he's always been right about things."

Wilson's identification with his Greek heritage remains strong and the Greek Orthodox Church remains an important part of his life. He returns home for the Easter holidays and attends services at the Greek Orthodox Church in Boston regularly.

Despite a strong belief in God, Wilson is careful to keep his politics and religion separate. "It means enough to him not to tinge it, not to denigrate the religion by using it in that way," says Kalkanis, who spent last Easter at the Wilson home.

Wilson has spent most of his life in Johnstown, New York, an ethnic blue-collar town of 9,000 people, located about 45 miles northwest of Albany. The Wilsons live outside the town in a rural house. Behind their house is a cow farm; to the left, a horse farm.

Life in Johnstown, Wilson recalls, was always peaceful, though he admits the town's homogeneity limited the range of his cultural experi-great place to grow up." (Though he adds that it "kinda sucked until I got a car.")

Living in Johnstown instilled in Wilson an understanding, appreciation and love for working-class America. "I grew up with people who had a lot going for themselves but who really didn't have the opportunity to move ahead," he says. "They didn't have the opportunity to maximize their gifts and I felt that fortunately I did. Whether it was strong family or good breaks, I was fortunate enough to get ahead."

It was also a heavily Republican town, and Wilson plans on entering politics as a Republican to help others have the same opportunities that were open to him.

His views are not always in line with the Republican Party platform, but rather a merger of life experience and his natural instinct to compromise.

He despises George Bush and Patrick Buchanan, calling the first incompetent, the other hateful. And he wants nothing to do with "country-club Republicans," who he says are just out to line their pockets. His heroes, rather, are Reagan, Jack Kemp and Martin Luther King, an eclectic collection which acquaintances say, "in terms of Harry," is "very sincere."

He opposes gays in the military, strongly supports equal rights for gays and acknowledges the tension between these two opinions. He is pro-life but seeks a compromise which would allow abortions for the first trimester alone.

He is critical of what he sees as Republican attempts to stir up racial animosity from the "southern strategy" to "Welfare Queens", arguing that conservatives have a particular burden to be progressive on civil rights because of their mixed record.

He opposes many affirmative action programs, all race quotas and heavily progressive taxation, although he agrees with FDR's New Deal legislation, Lyndon Johnson's initial Great Society programs and some current initiatives such as the Women, Infants and Children aid program.

Despite his sometimes divergent opinions, Wilson remains deeply loyal to the Republican Party and critical of what he perceives as basic flaws in the Democratic agenda.

"I feel the fundamental distinction between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is that the Republicans emphasize equality of opportunity whereas the Democrats are more likely to press for equality of results," says Wilson. "I think a lot of Democrats are reluctant to admit that some people are not going to work as hard as other people--that's "a gender and sexual orientation blind statement. I just believe in the concept of a meritocracy."