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, 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 stationWGAN.
Public life
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.
In 1998, LaMarche was approached to run for governor by Green Party activists on the Maine Green Independent Party nominee. Despite only raising $20,000, LaMarche's campaign won 7% of the vote. Because her campaigned received more than 5% of the total vote, she became the first woman in the history of the state of Maine to gain ballot access for a political party.
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 DemocratJohn 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 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 in the gubernatorial websites category, and An Honorable Mention from AAPC for mobile technology used in the LaMarche campaign.
Other occupations
From 2007 until 2011, LaMarche authored a weekly syndicated column which can be read on line in the Bangor Daily News. LaMarche was also a Contributing Author for the online news and commentary site 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 broadcast on the morning show was November 16, 2012. Upon returning to Pennsylvania she worked with Rick Smith on the from Harrisburg. LaMarche and Smith traveled 9800 miles of the U.S. broadcasting nightly and she came away with her second book, She is working to help end poverty in Appalachia. LaMarche and fellow homeless advocate, , traveled regularly speaking for agencies and universities about ever growing despair among America's poorest residents. They refer to themselves as the as a tribute to the important lessons delivered by John Steinbeck in his epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath. In June 2019, LaMarche published a novel, Magic Diary through Sunbury Press. Pat's newest novel, , is part one of a four part series dealing with homelessness through the eyes of an elderly woman and the young people she befriends in the park. It is published by the non-profit, , with all proceeds helping others.
