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When Town of Chevy Chase Councilman David Lublin started his run for office last year, the first voter he met refused to take his flyer. Lublin supported anti-mansionization rules, and lost his vote because of it.

It was a humbling moment for Lublin, who was trying to make the leap from government professor at American University in Washington, D.C. to elected official.

"What have I signed on for?" Lublin remembered thinking.

But drawing on his experience with students and remembering lessons learned while volunteering for local politicians such as State Sen. Richard S. Madaleno, Jr. and the late Del. Jane E. Lawton, Lublin has allowed his teaching and research to inform his council debates and constituent services, and vice versa.

"He is not a peripheral, academic sort of person when it comes to local issues," said Mier Wolf, a former town mayor who was among the first people Lublin met when the latter moved to the community three years ago. "He has chosen to educate himself and become a central activist on local issues. It kind goes against the stereotype of an academic."

Lublin, 40, was politically active and precocious from a young age, interning for U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy and earning a doctorate in government from Harvard University by age 26. But during his 14 years as an academic, when he wrote two books on politics, hitting the bricks for ballots was always in the back of his mind.

"It's very different when you do it for yourself," he said.

He said his academic research and teaching taught him the mechanics of government, and how it did not work like the business world because of its lack of corporate hierarchy. But working for Madaleno (D-Dist.18) of Kensington and Lawton taught him to listen to voters, do his homework on issues, and take a firm stand when necessary, so that he could be amiable and convincing at the same time.

"Political scientists often form opinions, but we tend to hedge our opinions carefully," Lublin said.

His lecturing experience in academia served as both a resource and a challenge. While he felt comfortable with public speaking before he took office and knew how to respect others' opinions, he had to learn to resist the temptation to give monologues during council meetings, and had to adjust to speaking on behalf of the town, not strictly himself.

He is now in a position to compare himself in a way to President Barack Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago. He said Obama has learned not to get too focused in details during political discussions, a skill Lublin said he is still working on.

Lublin spends more than 20 hours a week on council business, whether attending Long-Range Planning Committee meetings or performing constituent services, a concept he discusses all the time in his classes. The smaller issues, such as where to put new sidewalks and a traffic plan for Chevy Chase Elementary, have actually consumed most of his discussions and e-mail exchanges, even while he looks at ridership charts for the Purple Line and studies trends in Bethesda's business district.

"He could tell you pretty much what patterns are occurring, what the future might be both positive and negative," Wolf said.

Back in the American University classroom, Lublin has been able to use his practical, everyday knowledge of politics to his students' benefit, presenting personal examples to augment theories and statistics.

"It's helpful because it's enriched my teaching," he said. "There's always a story."