Paul LePage has always been the kind of guy to come from behind. He ran away from a dysfunctional home when he was 11 and lived on the streets for a couple years. He made it to college and went on to become general manager of Mardens and the mayor of Waterville. When he entered the Republican gubernatorial primary, he wasn't considered a top contender. But he ultimately won the seven-way primary with a stunning 20-point lead. Despite some high profile public gaffes and controversies, LePage rode to victory in November, with the help of a secret weapon. Patty Wight has the final installment in our weeklong series on the race for the Blaine House.
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Ask Paul LePage's chief of staff John Morris how the campaign won the GOP primary, and he'll tell you: "The campaign leading up to the primary was a stealth campaign. Nobody, and I mean, nobody, knew what we were doing. And the results were just fantastic."
Morris likes to keep his cards close to his chest, but he'll let you in on a few secrets. "We developed a campaign strategy of three 'only's.' Paul is the only candidate that has a compelling life story. He is the only candidate also in the general election that has chief executive officer experience in a government entity--that being the mayor of Waterville, and the third 'only' is he is the only candidate who is the chief executive of a prospering Maine business, that being Mardens."
This strategy of the three 'only's' obviously worked. But one of the most powerful weapons of the LePage campaign was a highly-motivated grassroots network of volunteers. And at an appreciation barbecue this summer, most volunteers pointed to the three 'only's' as a reason for their support.
LePage supporter 1: "He is the American dream, he's come from nothing…"
LePage supporter 2: "I say he's come from outhouse, and now he's on the steps of Blaine House."
In fact, many of LePage's staff were volunteers--including chief of staff John Morris. "I'm a person who was a naval officer for 30 years, a police chief for 17. In my life, I need a good shot of adrenaline every day."
Like most campaigns, funding was a top priority. Unlike other candidates who chose not to spend much money, received state funding, or used their own savings to help their campaign, LePage relied mostly on donations.
"My name is Kim Lindloff and I am the finance director for the LePage for governor campaign, and essentially, my ears are on a phone all day long."
It's Lindloff's job to find money, in part, to fund against attack ads they know are coming.
"I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, like if I don't do my job, then he can't get his message out to the people he needs to get his message out to," Lindloff says.
The campaign reasoned that LePage would have to attend as many fundraisers as possible. To allow time in the schedule, the campaign made a decision: no debates before September 1st. It was controversial. Other campaigns and some members of the news media suggested that LePage was hiding because he wasn't ready. But Morris brushed off the negative press.
"It is August. Nobody is paying attention to the campaign," he says. "People right now are more interested in their vacations, their barbecues and whatever else they're doing this summer."
Nevertheless, LePage does manage to attract a lot of media attention throughout the campaign--some earned by dust-ups with reporters pressing him on his wife's real estate, and residency status in Florida
LePage: "I am running for governor. Not my wife. I want to talk about the billion dollar shortfalls we have. And if you guys want to do the Enquirer, I'm not playing…"
Morris remains philosophical about the controversies. "Okay. Here's the most important thing to do in the morning. Look at the editorials, look at letters to the editors, and look at opinions. And make sure you don't get upset at 'em," he says. "Uh. Here's one. Let's read this one: 'Maine Democrats create problems, can't solve them.' This guy's right on."
During the campaign, LePage also made off-the-cuff remarks about Libby Mitchell's age, and suggested that if elected, he'd often be quoted telling president Obama to go to hell. He accused a prominent Democrat of writing racial slurs against him, though he never provided evidence.
In September, the Democratic Governors Association began running negative ads attacking LePage.
Campaign ad: "Staying green is not rational, he said. Tell Paul LePage his pro-nuke, pro-drilling policies are wrong for Maine."
After they aired, his poll numbers did go down. But, says John Morris, there was another side to the response. "We're finding that her negative ads are providing value to our campaign."
Answering machine: "Next new message." "I'm a Democrat who's voting for Paul. I just saw another ad by the Democratic Governors Association that irritated me."
Morris: "In fact, the phone calls favoring what she's opposed to outranks the phone calls complaining by about it at least 5 to 1."
Answering machine: "And every time I see that ad, it just makes me more and more determined to get more votes for Paul. So, thought I'd let you know. Thank you. Bye."
Morris: "Since she started her negative ads, our contributions have gone up significantly. Keep up the negative attacks, guys - we enjoy the money coming in."
LePage's base support was key in one of the campaigns final strategies: hand-deliver about 80,000 letters to unenrolled voters and soft Democrats.
"You just take one of these and just slip the rubber band over the doorknob and run. That's it." Four days before the election, Heather Sirocki is delivering these letters with her friend and fellow volunteer Sara Acker. Hand-delivering letters may not sound that unusual, but these were poster-sized. They did the same thing in the primaries, but on a much smaller scale.
"You know, it's pretty interesting--during the primary, I thought, 'What kind of hokey idea is this?'" Sirocki says. "And then we started getting all these people coming to the Web site and wanting to volunteer, specifically saying - 'Hey, I got one of your letters! And it really worked."
This is just the tip of the iceberg of what Sirocki did for the campaign. As the lead volunteer for Cumberland County, she was a communications maven. She was often up till midnight sending emails about events, information or pep talks. She'd forward them to team leaders across the state, who then passed them on to their own network.
"So it's me getting it out to my hundreds, and they in turn have their own groups of friends that I may not have any idea who they are," Sirocki says.
The LePage volunteers were given free reign to take charge of certain aspects of the campaign. This sense of ownership may explain why they were so motivated.
"We don't take anything for granted. You just keep going. No rest until November 3rd, and then you can crash," Sirocki says.
On election day, Morris was nervous. He said he felt competitive, but not overconfident. Eliot Cutler had been gaining momentum, and early election results reflected that.
"Probably one of the lowest moment was 9:30 on election night, and Paul was 9,000 votes behind," Morris says.
Patty Wight: "What were you feeling? What were you thinking?"
Morris: "Well, let's see uh - how about throwing up? No, we understood that that was coming in from the south and we knew our strength was in 2nd District."
As the night wore on, LePage's numbers slowly crept up to Eliot Cutler's, then passed him. At 11:00 the next morning, he got a call from Cutler conceding the race.
"Oh, it was euphoric. It was wonderful," Morris says. "It lasted about five minutes, and we have not had a minute to celebrate. Paul has to come up with a list for all his commissioners and his staff, then have a budget to work on, and we have rules and regulations that need to be changed…"
Morris says they won because of Paul's message. Because of their volunteers. Because of the three "only's."
"And, to be quite honest, the planets were aligned during this election," Morris says. "People are angry. People wanted new blood in government, as clearly demonstrated by the Republicans also winning the House and the Senate. Nobody predicted that--absolutely nobody. Including us."
Paul Richard LePage will be sworn in as the 74th governor of the state of Maine this coming Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center.
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