Related story: Yet another challenge

By Scott Mayerowitz
Journal Staff Writer

When I sat down to write candidate Aram Garabedian's profile, I knew it needed to be about the person, not the issues.

We had been covering the Cranston mayoral race since earlier summer, writing dozens of stories on the various issues facing the city. By this point, I felt every reader had a clear idea of where the candidates stood. The idea behind this article -- and the one I did the next day on his opponent, Steve Laffey -- was to get past the rhetoric.

When I first started covering the election, I created a standing file for each candidate. Anytime I saw him do something interesting, I would add that little scene to the file. One of those nuggets tuned into: ``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.''

Garabedian is a 67-year-old fixture in Cranston. He had been involved in almost every level of politics and makes his presence known everywhere. One of his campaign workers once said, ``He could talk a dog off a meat truck.''

I had seen Garabedian speak several times and had several interviews with him, but in the last month of the campaign I decided to follow him for an afternoon on the trail.

He shook hands outside Stop & Shop. We had lunch. The whole time he was staging his actions. While most of my material from that afternoon went into a separate story on campaigning, it laid a groundwork for this story (and the lead) and made it clear that I need to get him off the stage.

The next week, I joined him for a whole day. While I normally don't use a tape recorder, I did this day. I never got a chance to listen to the nine hours of tape, but I did use it for a few key quotes, including Garabedian's story of how he talked his way into college.

We started our day at 6 a.m., with a three-mile walk in the rain. I think the walk tired both of us out and helped me get an early start in getting him off guard. It also got me into his house (``The Millionaire Mind'' is one of the books in his living room).

By noon, Garabedian fell off his message. He had said everything in his platform three times and attacked his opponent and my coverage at least a dozen times.

Garabedian likes to micromanage and that become clearer and clearer as the day went on.

By 4 p.m., I got him to sit down for an hour and talk to me. I had asked him a few questions throughout the day (most which I already had the answers to.) By this point, he was tired and gave me the closest thing to a non-political answer.

One night as I was getting ready for bed, the top of the story came to me. I jotted it down and the next day started writing the article. I got through most of a rough draft without looking at my notes (I had been reviewing them on and off for three days.) I knew that I needed a quick example to back up my claim that he ``likes to take charge of the situation'' so I used the meeting diagram story.

Then I used the story of him talking his way into college story to show that this is a life-long habit.

I waited 245 words to mention that he is running for mayor. I then gave one of his quick reasons to hold the office and then got into his background, including why he first entered politics. After all the history, I figured I needed to end with more stories about his hands-on approach to everything.

My beat partner Barbara Polichetti was a great help during the editing process. She gave the story a few reads and made some great suggestions about structure and usage.

I don't like ending with quotes, but I felt that ``I know how to get things done'' summed up Garabedian better than anything I could write.