Pat LaMarche

Pat LaMarche
Personal details
Born	Patricia Helen LaMarche (1960-11-26) November 26, 1960 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Political party	Green
Children	Rebecca John
Alma mater	Boston College University of Amsterdam

Patricia Helen "Pat" LaMarche (born November 26, 1960) is an American political figure and activist with the Green Party of the United States; she was the party's vice-presidential candidate in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, with David Cobb as its presidential candidate, and was one of seven co-chairs of the party's national committee, the Green Party of the United States, elected to that position on July 24, 2005.

LaMarche is also a two-time former candidate for Governor of Maine (1998 and 2006).

Early life

LaMarche was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the fourth of five children. She grew up in a public housing project in that city. Her maternal grandparents were immigrants from southern Ireland. Her father, Paul Henri LaMarche, is a doctor, and her mother, Genevieve (née Judge), was at that time a housewife but later became an auditor employed by the state of Maine. When the family moved to Bangor, Maine, in the 1970s, LaMarche enrolled at John Bapst Memorial High School where she graduated near the top of her class. She pursued her education with four years at Boston College.

LaMarche returned to Maine in 1982, and the following year, she married Michael Russell. She had two children: Rebecca in 1985 and John in 1987. Patricia and Michael divorced in 1990. In the late eighties, she moved into the broadcasting field and was employed at various television and radio stations in the Bangor area. LaMarche has taught Public Relations at Husson College's school of Communications and headed the Bangor chapter of the Children's Miracle Network, which she saw go from one of the worst in the nation to the most successful.

In 1996 LaMarche moved south to Portland, Maine, to take a job at talk radio station WGAN.

Public life

She was approached to run for governor of the state of Maine in 1998 on the Green Independent Party ticket. LaMarche's campaign won 7% of the vote from a budget of only $20,000. She became the first woman in the history of the state of Maine to gain ballot access for a political party.

Until the beginning of her vice-presidential campaign, LaMarche was employed by a country music radio station in Maine under the pseudonym of Genny Judge; however, this ended with her candidacy.

On September 5, 2004, LaMarche announced that she would be visiting and staying overnight in homeless and domestic violence shelters throughout the United States "to draw attention to those living on the edge of society." The campaign dubbed this LaMarche's "Left-Out Tour." Left Out in America, LaMarche's book which chronicles her tour through American homeless shelters, was released on October 5, 2006, by Upsala Press.

2006 gubernatorial election

On December 8, 2005, LaMarche announced her candidacy on the Maine Green Independent Party ticket for the 2006 Maine gubernatorial election against incumbent Democrat John Baldacci. Her positions garnered the endorsement, among others, of Chris Miller, progressive former Democratic candidate for governor who lost in the primaries. LaMarche was one of three Maine Candidates who took advantage of Maine's Clean Election Act, a taxpayer-funded campaign system which rewards candidates with public funds if they meet the required 2,500 $5 contributions In November 2006, LaMarche received 51,992 votes (9.56%) in the Maine race for governor.

The LaMarche for Governor website was being permanently archived by the Library of Congress official 2006 Election archive. The site also won a number of awards, including The Golden Dot Award as Best Local Campaign Website of the 2006 campaign at the annual Politics Online conference held in Washington, D.C., on March 15, 2007, A Pollie Award from the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) in the gubernatorial websites category, and An Honorable Mention from AAPC for mobile technology used in the LaMarche campaign.

Other occupations

From 2007 -11, LaMarche authored a weekly syndicated column which can be read on line in the Bangor Daily News. LaMarche is also a Contributing Author for the online news and commentary site New Clear Vision as well as a contributor to the Huffington Post.

Along with her journalism, LaMarche was Vice President of Safe Harbour, a homeless shelter based in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for several years. She returned to Maine in June 2011, having been offered the opportunity by Stephen King to institute "a left-leaning" talk show. With her co-presenter, Don Cookson, LaMarche appeared on the WZON show The Pulse five mornings each week. In November 2011, in order to raise matched funding on offer from Stephen King to provide winter heat for Mainers without, LaMarche announced her intention to spend a week living in a "Hobbit Hole" outdoors, notwithstanding the bracing Maine fall conditions. She repeated the feat in 2012, garnering thousands of dollars in contributions. Her last appearance on the morning show was November 16, 2012. She is working to help end poverty in Appalachia following her departure from Bangor.

External links

• Official Pat LaMarche for Governor Website
• LaMarche's column for Bangor Daily News
• LaMarche as contributor to the Huffington Post