driver. He later worked at a rubber company and a meat-packing plant and was a short order cook and bartender. LePage was the only person among his parents and siblings to graduate from the 8th grade. He graduated from Lewiston High School in 1967. LePage applied to Husson College in Bangor, but was rejected due to a poor verbal score on the SAT because English was his second language. He has said that State Representative Peter Snowe—the first husband of former U.S. senator Olympia Snowe—persuaded Husson to give LePage a written exam in French, which allowed LePage to show his reading comprehension skills and gain admission. At Husson, LePage improved his English-language skills and became editor of the college newspaper. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration in finance and accounting and later earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maine. Early business and political career LePage worked for a lumber company in New Brunswick, Canada, that was owned by his first wife's family from 1972 to 1979, and later for Scott Paper in Winslow, Maine. He founded the business consulting firm LePage & Kasevich Inc., which specialized in aiding foundering companies. In 1996, LePage became general manager of Marden's Surplus and Salvage, a Maine-based discount store chain. LePage served two terms as a Waterville city councilor before becoming mayor in 2003, retaining that post until taking office as governor in January 2011. During his time as mayor, LePage reorganized city hall, lowered taxes, and increased the city's rainy day fund balance from $1 million to $10 million. Governor of Maine 2010 election On September 22, 2009, LePage announced that he would be seeking the 2010 Republican nomination for governor of Maine. He won 38% of the vote in a seven-way primary election, despite being outspent ten-to-one by his closest challenger. John Morris, LePage's campaign chief-of-staff, credited LePage's win with a campaign strategy (devised by chief strategist Brent Littlefield) that he referred to as the "three onlys" theme before the June primary election. This theme focused on particular aspects of LePage's biography that supposedly set him apart from the other candidates. These were, according to Morris, LePage "was the only candidate who had a compelling life story, ... the only candidate who had a successful experience as a chief executive officer of a government entity, ... the only candidate who was the executive of