Most Saturday mornings in Bremen, Ind., the regulars gather at Zentz's Barber Shop on Plymouth St. to talk politics. "There's a lot of pretty important decisions that are made in the barber shop," says proprietor John Zentz, chairman of Marshall County's Republican Party. The decisions aren't always earth-shaking, but we get some things done without making a fuss. "Barbering ($4 a cut) doesn't interfere. "Oh, my customers are extremely tolerant," Zentz explains. "I just keep on working and I guess they trust me."

Time-honored traditions, personal intimacy, barber shop strategy sessions these are the pride of Bremen, a community of 3500 surrounded by farms and light industrial plants. Small Town U.S.A. says Gregory Mishler, who runs a funeral home and represents the district in the state assembly. "You have the sense that people know each other well here that they speak of you like you're a member of the family."

Of all the blond, healthy looking sons of Bremen you might bump into on Plymouth St. Tracy Elliott has got to be one of the most remarkable: an influential campaign manager in Zentz's organization by age 18, a former student leader and track star at Bremen High and the school's first graduate to attend Harvard Four years in Cambridge have not diminished Elliott's interest in Indiana politics nor improved his opinion of "limousine liberals" and "intellectual me tooism" But he admits to changing. He no longer calls himself conservative" and expresses sincere interest in some of the "big campus causes" he once dismissed "In my family it was always something of a joke that I would come out East and become a flaming liberal," he says, smiling. "It hasn't quite been that."

At a university populated by more than its share of over achievers and self promoters. Elliott has chosen to keep Bremen as his point of reference. He is exceptional in having proudly remained what many undergraduates disdain as "typical," or worse, "middle American." While his classmates fretted over professional school applications. Elliott quietly engineered legislative campaigns back home and penned a fiery political column that ran in the weekly Bremen Enquirer. Along the way, he set aside plans for law school to explore a new interest in American educational philosophy. He will begin teaching this fall at a small private school 40 miles from Bremen.

The "adventure in the big city," as Elliott puts it, has ended happily enough but not without a dark chapter. On top of Harvard's standard academic and social pressure, the visitor from the Midwest had to struggle with a mysterious illness that caused debilitating headaches and depression junior and senior years. His ultimately successful battle against the ailment, and in particular his self-diagnosis, only confirm the power of Bremen-style tenacity: "You just figure that there's got to be some way to beat that problem."

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Elliott fell in love with politics along with the rest of his town when popular local physician Otis "Doc" Bowen ran for governor in 1972. Bowen swept into office with the Nixon landslide that year, and sixth grader Elliott was captivated by the furor: "The whole community was just thrust into a political frenzy for months. It was exceedingly exciting, not just politically, but in a very personal way... We attended umpteen political rallies and speeches, with the TV cameras and lights and everything... Somewhere in the campaign, I became involved in the whole process, became an avid Republican, an avid Nixon supporter, an avid Bowen supporter. There wasn't much else to be in Bremen."

The youngster began tagging along at any GOP functions he could get into. In 1976, he supervised the township youth campaign for a U.S. Congressional candidate. Elliott's man lost but took Bremen by a wider margin than he received in his home township. "The first big break," the senior recalls with mock seriousness.

Politics seemed to come naturally from the start. "He understood how to evaluate people, how to get them to work, even as a very young man," says Zentz. Elliott, modest about his achievements but joyful in their retelling, credits his "many teachers," including his father. Duwaine, a successful businessman and former town board president.

After becoming the youngest delegate ever to attend an Indiana state Republican convention, the junior Elliott left for Harvard. But he brought his work with him.

"I just try to stay in touch with people, that's all," he explains, Says Zentz: "I'd hate to pay his college phone bill." Elliott directed the rookie state assembly campaign of Bremenite Greg Mishler the summer after freshman year and continued to manage the operation from Cambridge through the fall Long-distance leadership never posed a major problem for the precocious strategist: "Everyone knew just what they had to do every day until the polls closed because I had mapped it all out beforehand--advertising, canvassing, appearances, the works."

Mishler, a relative unknown running against a popular Democrat, mounted an impressive campaign. "I went home that last weekend to push it all through," says Elliott, pausing dramatically "And we got beat."

Despite the loss, Mishler was impressed by Elliott's abilities and rehired the Ivy Leaguer for another try in 1982. "We figured we had in this time," explains Elliott. "The Legislature was just totally controlled by the Republicans and carved out a new district for Greg in '82, which also happened to carve out his opponent." He adds matter-of-factly: "It's not gerrymandering; it's called redistricting."

Elliott emphasized the need for "clear image-projection rather than excessive detail" in the campaign that summer, particularly in a newspaper advertising offensive he terms "pretty successful by most estimates." Once again, he had to direct the final stages of his operation from Cambridge, but "things moved smoothly and fell into place--we won." Says State Rep. Mishler: "We all knew what we had to do, including me... Only someone of Tracy's caliber could have pulled this thing off."

The fervor of battle first drew Elliott into politics; his unusual skills as field commander kept him there. But he also quickly developed heartfelt, hard-Right principles to go with his organizing talents. "I was a Republican who would have abandoned the Republican ship if the principles were no longer conservative enough," he says. "I proudly associated myself with the New Right... God, country, and the flag and a very limited role for government in all levels of society, a predilection for business, commerce or economic activity."