No five-to-four votes were brewing in council chambers on the 11th floor, so I found myself hanging around the second-floor hallway. The second floor (where city staffers slip in and out of the Municipal Building's side door) is a reporter's gold mine. In one 15-second interlude, I ran into the following hotshots: Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, new City Attorney Tom Carr, Council Member Heidi Wills, and new Council President Peter Steinbrueck.

However, of the whole bunch, the boyish 29-year-old standing in the corner was oozing the most VIP power. I wasn't the only one who noticed him. One after one, Kerlikowske, Carr, Wills, and Steinbrueck all went out of their way to smile, say "hi," or shake his hand. Meet city hall's new darling, Marco Lowe--Mayor Greg Nickels' personal antennae.

Lowe, who grew up outside Olympia, is one of many twentysomethings from Nickels' campaign staff whom the new mayor has called on to help run the city. Viet Shelton, 20; Kimly Arroyo, 21; and Kelly Ogilvie, 22, all landed jobs in Nickels' administration. Lowe, however, who ran Nickels' campaign, scored a job on Nickels' senior staff. He is the head of community relations.

Lowe, if you can imagine such a thing, is a hip-looking version of Nickels, sporting schoolboy good looks and a leather jacket. Before running Nickels' mayoral campaign, Lowe split time as Nickels' legislative aide at the King County Council and as Gary Locke's campaign field manager. Lowe also co-founded the neXt pac, a youth-centric campaign committee, with fellow upstart Dave Upthegrove, the new openly gay Democratic state representative from SeaTac.

Lowe's job title, Community Relations, is a euphemism for political operative. Lowe is the person (think Michael J. Fox on Spin City) who will go on the offensive when Nickels wants to make shit happen. Lowe will find out what Nickels needs to do to nail down key constituent support; he'll get the read on who and what Nickels needs to be paying attention to in neighborhoods and board rooms; he'll figure out where Nickels needs to speak on MLK Day.

On the flip side, Lowe's also the guy who constituency groups will turn to so they can figure out how to get the mayor's support. Having Lowe in this role is a good thing. In a nutshell, dearest Stranger readers, Lowe is one of us: Lowe, University of Washington Class of '95, lives two miles north of the U-District in a house with four guys. They have a part-time software business they run out of the basement. He spends most of his free time at his girlfriend's house in Ballard.

Call and bug Marco Lowe at city hall (684-8523). He's got Nickels' ear, and you've got his.

josh@thestranger.com