He may not have the TV-ready quotes, the smooth suits or the fund-raising chops of other potential candidates, but 24-year-old Nick Bryson wants to be the next mayor of Salt Lake City.

The University of Utah student thinks he's the best man for the job because he's an outsider to local politics, and the city itself, as it turns out. Bryson was born and raised in Holladay, where he still lives in his parents' house. He plans to move to Salt Lake City in order to be eligible for the office.

"I'll be graduating in December, and I figured that I wanted a job and the mayor sounded like a really good one," Bryson said. "All these other people, they're pretty old, and they've been in politics for so long, and they're disconnected from the people."

Bryson, who is a journalism student at the U., does courier work for the Attorney General's Office during the day. His work lets him wear blue jeans, T-shirts and KangaROOS, and it often brings him downtown, which he thinks ought to have a more exciting veneer. But Bryson readily admits that he doesn't know how to spice things up.

"I'm not into business too much," he said. "My friends are interested in helping me out, though."

He believes that his relative anonymity will work in his favor when it comes time to forge relationships with the Utah Legislature and other mayors, something current Mayor Rocky Anderson hasn't been known for.

"They'll know nothing about me," Bryson said. "I'll make a good impression in the beginning."

Candidates must have lived in the city for 12 months prior to the general election, which gives Bryson a Nov. 6 deadline.

If the run for mayor doesn't work out, Bryson hopes to capitalize on his Portuguese language skills as a foreign-media analyst for the CIA. He's got a "naive pop, abstract, absurdist" rock band called the Lollipop Guild with his younger sister, and he has the full support of his father, if not his mother.

"My mom's exact words were, 'Don't embarrass me,' " Bryson said.

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E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com