An Underdog Has His Day

Winning Isn't Everything, Except Maybe in High School

NEW YORK -- Before his musical won three Tony Awards, before Barbra Streisand's people were calling him to write her a song or he was collaborating with the "South Park" boys, Jeff Marx was just another law school grad knocking around Manhattan, wondering what to do with his life.

It felt like the misery of high school all over again. He decided to write the book he wished he'd had, back when he was an unpopular underdog wanting acceptance.

"How to Win a High School Election" came out in 1999, a self-published handbook, in print and online, of strategy and tips, some simple and obvious, some quirky and cunning.

"The candidate who wins is not necessarily the one with the most widespread support, but the one who gets the most people to actually go cast ballots," Marx writes. "It's all about people. It's NOT about being slick and political, kissing babies, and putting up posters: it's about being friendly, being genuine, being confident, and getting people to the polls."

Today, at 36, he lives three blocks from "Avenue Q," the long-running hit musical he co-wrote. It features puppets, resembling the Muppets, who experience the lives of recent graduates encountering post-college angst -- and doing and saying the things twenty-somethings do and say and Muppets emphatically do not do or say. He sports super-frizzy hair that forms a bulb on his head and, on a recent afternoon, wears a T-shirt Samuel L. Jackson might wear if he were a Jewish guy. (The front says, "Shalom," and then uses a bad word.)

But he can't let go of that scrawny 11th-grader he was in his ritzy Florida private school, the kid picked last, who decided to win acceptance through a run for student council. So for the past year, Marx has "spent too much time" working to update "How to Win a High School Election," which has sold more than 15,000 copies. The new version comes out this month. "I feel like I'm giving to the kind of kid I was. The real reason I'm doing this is when I was running for an election, I wanted a book like this," he says in an interview at his favorite diner. "I have some responsibility to put something out there like this that will be helpful."

In Washington, so many -- the lobbyists, consultants, Hill staffers, idealists and realists -- have a hunger for the political game. But remember when elections weren't about the seats needed to win control of the House or the ability to slide in an earmark or hold a committee hearing? Remember when they were about the simple affirmation from your classmates that you were worthy enough to represent them, that they would choose you?

Because even those first elections involve strategy, the book's165 pages of advice are a kind of K Street consulting lite for teen pols. Marx solicited suggestions by perusing the America Online profiles of high school students and e-mailing 15,000 of them.

Tips poured in, and they form the bulk of the book:

· On people: "Go and take the time ahead of elections to get to know people, not just at the last minute. It won't hurt to eat with someone different at lunch or to help out someone you don't know." (Russ, California)

· On posters: "My slogan was 'pick a winner' and I drew pictures of people picking their noses or their 'wedgies.' " (Maggie, Kentucky)

· On speeches: "A guy running for secretary started his speech by announcing that he was dropping out of the race. Then, over the speakers, came a pre-recorded tape of what was supposed to be the voice of God (really, his voice), telling him not to be a fool and to stay in the race. It was really funny and people remembered it and he won." (Laura, California)