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By Tom Gibboney

Special to the Almanac

If you are running for political office in Northern California, chances are you have met JoAnn Loulan, a Portola Valley psychotherapist who has become one of the better-known Democratic fundraisers in the state. It runs in her family.

“I’ve been fundraising my whole life,” she said recently. “My mother was a fundraiser for the heart association and my grandmother was a suffragette.”

Some of Ms. Loulan’s fire undoubtedly comes from being a two-time breast cancer survivor. And her mother, Billie Gardner Loulan, died of breast cancer at age 53. She continues to volunteer for Breast Cancer Action and has raised $1.2 million since 2003 for BCA.

On Saturday, April 29, starting at 6 p.m., the 13th annual Billie Loulan Memorial Breast Cancer Action Fundraiser will be held in Portola Valley. Local musicians Ronny Crawford and the Family Band will perform.

She advises anyone who is participating in or donating to breast cancer events to “Think before you pink” and make sure they know where the money goes.

After graduating from Northwestern in the 1960s, Ms. Loulan gradually moved into political fundraising. “I’ve written books, done public speaking, marched with the lesbian antiwar movement.”

More recently, she has gravitated toward working for the Democratic candidates favored by many Portola Valley residents. “I worked on the Obama and Clinton campaigns and for women Senate candidates from other states as well as some members of Congress. I made 9,000 calls for Obama and 7,000 for Hillary.”

She has lived in Portola Valley for 30 years. Recently, she was sharing her expertise at a local home with about 70 people who were attending a meeting of “Indivisible,” one of numerous grass-roots groups that have sprung up around the country in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as president.

“We need to win back red state legislatures, starting with Virginia,” she told the rapt audience. “There are 12 seats held by Republicans in Virginia districts that Hillary won by 2,000 to 20,000 votes. These are districts we are going to concentrate on.”

California volunteers, she said, can help Democrats win in Virginia by making phone calls and raising or donating money. Even in red states, Ms. Loulan said, many “swing districts” are virtually 50-50, so are very winnable by Democrats in 2018.

“I haven’t seen anything like this (grass-roots uprising) since the Vietnam War,” she said. “And then, we didn’t have the internet.”

In 1970, when she was a Northwestern student in Evanston, Illinois, she knew people at Kent State in Ohio, where the National Guard killed six students and injured many others during the Vietnam era. “It was a horrible time,” she said.

What keeps Ms. Loulan coming back again and again to raise funds for her various political and other causes?

She doesn’t mince words: “I feel like we can’t let this country become a white, male, straight, Christian autocracy, which is where we’re headed. My concern is that one terrorist attack on our country and it could start a war. Imagine 9-11 on this watch.”

Ms. Loulan is encouraged by Indivisible, MoveOn.org and other internet-based, boots-on-the-ground organizations.

“It is fabulous to get supporters to confront local candidates and get them involved in the process, to see that they can make a difference,” she said.

Under the Indivisible banner, more than 5,300 small groups have been created all over the country involving a total of some 200,000 people.

Ms. Loulan is arranging fundraising visits here for women senators up for re-election in 2018, which is projected to be a tough year for Democrats. The group, Electing Women Silicon Valley, just hosted Sen. Kirsten Gillebrand of New York, who took home about $80,000 from fundraising events in Palo Alto and San Francisco. More events are planned.

When it comes to money, Ms. Loulan and her husband, Ronny Crawford, are all in. They contribute 25 percent of their income to political campaigns and causes, and spend their vacations traveling around the country working for candidates. She knows that more than anything, it takes money and hard work to win elections.

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5 Comments

  1. It seems a little odd to me that a senator comes flying in from across the country to scoop up $80K in donations. That money could have gone toward supporting local candidates. Anyway that’s an impressive performance for 2 days of campaigning.

    Separately, I don’t think America is turning into a “white male straight Christian” country. That may have been a reasonable characterization of the power structure 100 years ago, but what we have today is most definitely pluralistic and becoming more so, not less. And there’s nothing wrong with being white, male, straight, or Christian, or any combination thereof. People really need to stop bashing white males as a means to empower other groups who, in the end, just want the same thing that they criticize white males for having. Don’t disparage us, come join us.

  2. Four students were killed by the National Guard at Kent State in 1970, not six.

    I like Ms. Loulan’s hair. She must have a very good colorist.

    Congrats on her charity fund-raising. Nice job, and good luck at the April Event.

    Nice to see so many unhappy Democrats.

  3. Love that comment Jeanette (“nice to see so many unhappy democrats”). Says it all. And speaking of the Versatel machine (‘ka-ching’)known as Silicon Valley, wonder if one’s charity would include repaying ALL of us taxpaying citizens for the special police/sheriff protection the money grubbers expect whenever they come to town to collect their booty; it’s particularly distasteful when rich politicians expect charity. Doesn’t sound very democratic (i.e., ‘fair’) to this writer. Isn’t there something called “The Fairness Doctrine” that would preclude handouts to other than the desperate (or maybe they’re all ‘desperate’)!

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