By GERRY GOLDSTEIN, Valley Breeze & Observer Correspondent

SMITHFIELD - Making the most of personal space and cyberspace, farm-boy-turned-prosecutor Stephen Archambault is pressing the flesh and stroking the keys to YouTube and Facebook in his bid to become Rhode Island's next attorney general.

As the Sept. 14 primary approaches, the two-term Democratic town councilor from Smithfield is criss-crossing the state shaking every hand he can reach, in a campaign that in some respects is as old-fashioned as the 1720 family farmhouse where he grew up and where he lives today.

But as have a number of other candidates, the 45-year-old Archambault is also spreading his message on the Internet, where his Facebook page links potential voters to his agenda of crime fighting and anti-corruption measures, hard looks at double-digit health insurance and utility rate hikes, and clamp downs on mortgage fraud, drunk drivers and cyber-bullying.

A former Jamestown policeman who worked his way through college and law school, Archambault says he eyed a career in law even as a child, when he enjoyed trying to out-argue his father on their Smithfield farm that housed some 15 Holsteins.

Now a neatly tailored defense lawyer who's also a prosecutor for the town of Lincoln, Archambault says his goal is to bring to the state office aggressive campaigns, particularly against public corruption and consumer fraud.

In the primary, he's facing another former cop, long-time Pawtucket state Rep. Peter Kilmartin, also now a lawyer; and Joseph Fernandez, former Providence city solicitor.

The three are vying for the right to face Republican Erik Wallin, Moderate Christopher Little, and independents Robert Rainville and Keven McKenna in the Nov. 2 general election.

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