In stark contrast to his risque costume, the living quarters of "Top Hat Teddy" reflect nothing of his projected personality. Edmund "Teddy" Tarallo '04 lives among unadorned white walls, a scattering of furniture, and a new, more serious personality to match. "In every boy's life, there comes a time when you have to put away the toys," he said of his new look. The boy who used to walk around campus wearing large knee-high boots, a cape and his unmistakable top hat now sat before me, all grown up in a button-down shirt, slacks, and slicked hair.

The only remnants of a previous personality were the small ponytail at the back of his head and his all black garb. This transformation is largely the result of his running for Councilor-at-Large in the city of Waltham.

"No one was going to elect a punk kid," he said. "I always knew I'd have to someday change the way I looked to be a professional. Someday just came sooner than I expected it to."

"Someday" came sooner than expected because the "climate in city politics was right," Tarallo said, indicating that two at-large candidates are running for mayor, leaving two open seats. "This is something very important to me. I wanted to start now. Everything just lined up to be the time. I'm going to graduate. I want to start getting my life in order," he replied when asked why he chose to run at such a young age.

"It's something I've wanted to do for my whole life. My father was a councilor for the past 15 years so I grew up on it," Tarallo said, adding proudly that he has lived in Waltham for his entire life. "I felt it was important to give back to the community. I wanted to help people. It's like the family business. If your father's a carpenter, you become a carpenter."

People have generally accepted his candidacy, despite his age. (He is 21. As long as one old enough to vote, one is permitted to run for this position.) "They think it's ambitious," Tarallo said. Ambitious, indeed. Of the nine candidates for six positions, he is the only one who has never run before.

Additionally, if he wins the election, he will be sworn in on the first of the year. So Tarallo would serve as councilor and student at Brandeis until finishing up his last semester here. He does not seem to be worried about the prospect of performing a juggling act.

"It's a part-time job," he said, "I'd balance it the same way I'd balance another job on campus."

This "part-time job" would entail serving on the city council which holds meetings Monday nights. The council issues "orders, ordinances, and resolutions," he said as though he had heard this list recited each day for his entire life. "A resolution can be anything from announcing that the boy scouts are doing something important to allocating funds to the Hardy Pond."

The pond, previously used as a car dump, is now the the focus of many environmental concerns. Over the past few years there have been attempts to clean it out and drudge it so that it is capable of supporting marine life again, Tarallo explained.

Environmentalism, is one of many other issues to concern Tarallo, who identifies himself as a Democrat. His three main points of concern are traffic, housing and taxation. Tarallo believes that that the city has huge traffic problems on South Street, Main Street and Moody Street, in particular. He would like to have a professional evaluate the traffic situation for the entire city because in order "to lighten traffic in places like that, you need to lighten it everywhere, or else it will block somewhere else," Tarallo said.

Tarallo would also like to see lower rent and more low income housing, noting, "lots of people are having trouble staying here ... The best way to get low income housing is to have builders who are coming in designate certain areas to low-income housing."

He does not approve of the way that the tax burden is distributed. "Right now, residents are carrying most of the burden. I'd like to see the burden more equally shared (between residents and industry)."

Other issues that concern him are preservation of open space and governmental fairness. "I want to make sure that things in government are done fairly and efficiently," Tarallo said.

"I want to make sure that everyone has a place to live. I would love to see that day when everyone has health insurance. Our open space has to be preserved." Furthermore, he would champion schools and accessible government. He would like a way of tracking the progress of community issues such as potholes and non-operating telephone wires on the city's Web site "so you know that it's not going into a pile of nothingness. So it's put back in people's hands instead of the ambiguousness of government."

His experience comes mainly from watching his father deal with constituents. "I ran for student government in high school. I never took the time to run for anything at Brandeis. I would always miss the deadlines. I was always busy doing other things... like fun stuff."

His strength seems to lie not in his experience but in his willingness to work hard in the future. "I have a good understanding of how the city allocates funds and uses them. I'm willing to do an awful lot of hard work. If I don't know something, I'm willing to do the research and I'm not afraid to ask questions," he said.

He has debated moving up to higher levels of government later on in life, but is reserving judgment until later. If life takes a very different turn, he said he may utilize his psychology major instead and become a therapist.

The funding for his campaign has come from donations. His friend threw a small house party which started the ball rolling. He will be holding another fundraiser on Sept. 28 at Pizzi Farms. "It's a chance for people to get to know me," he said.

Elections will be held on Nov. 4. Any registered voter and Waltham resident of more than 6 months out of the year is eligible to vote, including most Brandeis students.