CRANSTON - When Aram Garabedian locks onto something — whether it's blocking Home Depot from his neighborhood, or the arm of a potential voter leaving the supermarket — he won't let go until he's made his point.

Garabedian likes to take charge of the situation.

After attending a meeting this summer where half the board members had their backs to the audience, Garabedian asked them to face the public and even provided them with a new seating plan that he sketched on a scrap of paper.

His boldness and drive to get things done goes back to his youth when, going off to college, he literally had to talk his way into school.

Having been passed over for a football scholarship to the University of Maine, Garabedian packed his suitcase and hitchhiked north to chat with a school official.

The first semester would cost $550; Garabedian had $35.

He was led into an office, he recalls, and “this guy's sitting there, moustache, glasses over his nose, I was frightened to death, but I stood up to him.

“So I said to the guy, 'don't worry, I'll get a job for 60 cents an hour. I'll work 40 hours a week; that's 24 bucks. At the end of the month, I'll bring you back 80 bucks.' So the guy kept listening and listening.... So finally as the end of the story comes, he tires out. I tired him out.”

Now 67, Garabedian has set his sights on becoming mayor and solving the city's financial distress.

Throughout the campaign, Garabedian, a Democrat, has displayed that same ferocity, routinely attacking Republican Stephen P. Laffey, 40, for being away from Cranston for 20 years and for being a political novice — things that Laffey boasts.

RAISED IN PROVIDENCE, Garabedian went to Hope High School, where he met his future wife, Jane Bliss. She was a majorette; he played football.

A few years after the couple moved to Cranston, Garabedian entered politics. His son, Gary, has a November birthday and needed to wait an extra year to enter kindergarten. While fighting the start date, Garabedian learned about the proposed site of the new junior high school — not centrally located and near wetlands. He won election to the school board in 1966 and has been involved in politics ever since.

He served six years in the state House of Representatives in the 1970s, two more in the 1990s and has been in the state Senate for the last two years. He unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor in 1978, the state Senate in 1980 and the City Council in 1982. He has run as a Republican, an independent and a Democrat.

The same year he entered politics, Garabedian joined a company that eventually became Nature's Bounty Vitamins, a distributor of vitamins and health supplements. He started as a salesman and left the company as senior vice president for sales and marketing. He still sits on its board of directors.

Garabedian then joined his wife's family business and became the president of Bliss Properties. The company manages and owns parts of the Warwick Mall and several properties in Providence and Newport.

In the last session of the General Assembly none of the 17 bills he sponsored became law. Garabedian says he has backed other, successful bills and that he often presses for unpopular legislation, such as a bill making it a felony for any candidate to accept more than $500 in cash contributions.

During the years he was not in public office, Garabedian mobilized residents to fight everything from taxes to so-called big-box stores.

Garabedian likes to portray himself independent from party politics, although he is the endorsed candidate.

His chosen testament to his autonomy is the gilded figure of the Independent Man that adorns the dome of the State House. An outline of the figure is the centerpiece of his plethora of political signs. For years, a replica of the spear-holding statue has stood outside the Warwick Mall food court.

MAYOR JOHN O'LEARY, who decided in June not to seek a second term, hand-picked Garabedian to be his successor.

“After meeting with John O'Leary,” Garabedian said, “I finally said to myself, 'You know what, you are the guy for the job Aram, and you can't turn your back on the city.' So I decided that I would confront my wife. I did and finally I'm here.”

Garabedian runs his campaign like a well-oiled machine. When there are bumps, he's the one to quickly jump in and find a solution. On a recent afternoon when his staff struggled to find somebody to drive him to the next event, he hopped behind the wheel and drove off with his staff running after him.

Hands-on does not begin to describe him.

Garabedian is known for doing his homework and often speaks at length during public meetings, waiving around the City Charter or some other document. But he says he is most proud of his reputation.

“No one,” Garabedian said, “has ever charged me with improprieties or corruption in Cranston.”

While he runs on his extensive political and business record, Garabedian still will devote plenty of energy into picking apart his opponent.

Of Laffey, he says, “This young man doesn't know where the doors are. He doesn't know anything about what's happening in Rhode Island.... I know how to get things done.”