It's Showtime for this eager 'Candidate'

If the country is ever ready to elect a black, Puerto Rican, Italian woman with a pierced tongue and hip-hop sensibility as president, it might be Emerson College alum Malia Lazu.

She's one of the contestants on "American Candidate," a political reality-TV series which begins Sunday night at 9 on Showtime. Over 10 weeks, an eclectic group of people face challenges to test their political skills. Eventually, the public will vote for the winner, who receives $200,000 and a chance to address the nation at a later date.

Most of the show was filmed during primary season. In the second episode, for example, the group travels to Keene, N.H., to give speeches about the war on terror and then work the phones and hit the streets trying to connect with voters.

Other episodes will show the candidates talking up their economic policies with voters in Allentown, Pa., and speaking at a town hall meeting on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville.

When the show airs, voters in the state where the candidates made their appearance can call a toll-free number to choose their favorite. The two who receive the lowest number of votes square off in an elimination debate to see who'll be ousted from the show. During the last two episodes, voters across the country can call in and cast votes to decide which of the remaining candidates should win the entire contest.

The chance to make politics seem more down-to-earth spurred Lazu to sign up.

Although she moved to the Washington, D.C., area last year to become field director for Young Voter Alliance, her heart clearly still belongs in Boston. At 27, she has several years experience as a political organizer under her belt.

In a scene from the show, she's walking through Dudley Square with a megaphone trying to get people to attend a rally at Slade's Bar & Grill in the South End. She walks up to a pregnant woman with a child and makes her pitch. Initially, the woman looks confused, but Lazu wins her over, as well as another woman who stopped to listen.

In town for the Democratic National Convention, Lazu's eager to get back on the road again where she's training teams in 12 cities, from Philadelphia to Albuquerque, to register young voters.

Her left leg is in a cast and she's on crutches, but that hasn't slowed her down. She injured herself falling down stairs last week at Ohio State University. Rather than rest at her hotel, she did another round of training activists to get out the vote.

Lazu has a halo of wavy blondish brown hair, large brown eyes, and an infectious sense of energy. She speaks a lot with her hands and her slightly raspy voice sounds like sandpapered honey.

She's eager to reveal what you won't see on "American Candidate," but the show's producers have sworn contestants to secrecy. Two episodes remain to be taped; the final show will air in October.

"I wanted to be on the show because I wanted to put a new face on politics," she said. Very few people look like me and sound like me and do things the way I do."

The Hawaii native got her first taste of politics at age 9, holding a sign supporting state representative Rod Tam. Politics was a frequent topic at home growing up. She talked about Puerto Rican statehood with her father. With her conservative Republican grandparents, she listened to Rush Limbaugh. Her mother bought her such books as "Soul on Ice" and "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" Today, Lazu defines herself as a liberal progressive who is neither a Republican nor a Democrat.

She came to Boston in 1995 to attend Emerson. At 19, she started Boston VOTE (now called MassVOTE), founded to increase participation among young voters in minority communities.

R.J. Cutler, creator of "American Candidate," produced "The War Room," about Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. He dismisses potential criticism that the show might muddy the waters between politics and entertainment.

That line, he said, "has been blurred probably since the tabloids made vicious fun of Adams and Jefferson in the first contested election we had after George Washington.

"One of the things I think the show does is humanize presidential politics. Far from trivializing, far from blurring the line we celebrate, in a fairly romantic way, the notion of politics and electoral politics."

In casting the show, Cutler said, "What we wanted were people who combined their vision for the country with their passion for that vision and talent to communicate it and lead with it." More than 20,000 people requested or downloaded applications for the show, and the 10 finalists were chosen from 1,500 people.

Lazu admits the show made her question whether she wants to live under the fish-bowl scrutiny that comes with being a political figure. But she's also encouraged by young politicians such as earring-wearing, Jay-Z-listening Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who manage to keep it real.

"I think that our generation, my generation, will be shifting the face of politics," she said. "Eventually, I'll run for office. For me, the biggest question is where, because I love Boston but I also love Hawaii, where I was born and raised, and Hawaii is hurting."

In addition to Lazu, the mix of candidates includes Keith Boykin, a graduate of Dartmouth and Harvard Law who worked in the Clinton White House.

Boykin, 38, also worked on Michael Dukakis's presidential campaign after college. He admits he was sometimes caught off guard by how intrusive it was to be followed by cameras and miked up constantly. But he said being a contestant on "American Candidate" has made him think about making a run for office in New York City, where he lives.

"I don't want people to think of me as just the black candidate or the gay candidate, but as a qualified candidate," he said. "I think people will be able to see that we miss out on so many qualified people in public life because of prejudices -- racial prejudices, sexual orientation prejudices, gender prejudices, religious prejudices."

Cutler said the show examines the notion people are taught in school that any boy or girl can grow up to be president.

"I promise you when John Kerry is sitting around in a quiet moment, he's got a lot of the same insecurities and anxieties these guys have," he said. "There's a point to be made about this, which is people who run for president are human. They're men and women just like you and me. They're not royalty. They're not gods. They're not chosen by gods."

Rhonda Stewart can be reached at rstewart@globe.com.