It’s well known that money is the “mother’s milk” of politics and it takes a lot of money to elect people to political office. We’re bombarded daily with requests for money from people we may have never heard of before! But our Fundraising Chair, Susan Gutowsky, feels the best place for you to invest your political dollars is here with the Placer County Democratic Club (PCDC)!

The “Victory Fund” goal is to raise $25,000 to support the efforts and campaigns of local candidates and to help build a strong bench of candidates for local, statewide and federal offices. Without the R-K dinner this year, she feels we will have to be creative and her committee is already making it happen! Working with committee members Lisa Larkin and Junko Baker, we learned how much fun, and profitable Virtual Bingo, can be!

And committee member Parry Lustgarten is working with several nationally known Democrats to be guest speakers at virtual fund raisers in the near future. Watch the PCDP Facebook page and website and be sure to sign up for the PCDC Newsletter for all the coming events! You’re also welcome to join the fundraising committee – innovative, creative, positive, self-motivated people welcome!!!

Susan Gutowsky’s “high flying” story begins with airplanes and her love for flying has never diminished. Her father was stationed at Scott Air Force Base, near Belleville, Illinois, where he met her mother and a love story began. Years and military tours later, her parents moved back to Belleville where she joined them in 2009 to help them downsize and met her future husband, Gary when he was stationed at Scott–proving that aviation is truly a small world!

Her love of aviation helped her land her first job out of college – as a flight attendant and proud union leader at Eastern Airlines. She worked for three separate airlines over the years because “every airline I worked for went bankrupt!” She later earned her private pilot’s license and instrument rating.

Living in Charlottesville, Virginia she became more politically active. She describes Charlottesville at the time as “a little blue dot in a mostly red state.” After retiring from the airlines, she entered the real estate field, first as a broker and later as a manager. She and Gary share 5 children, now adults ranging from 21 to 40 years in age.

After Gary’s retirement from the Air Force, they moved to Roseville in 2012. The first election in which she voted in California surprised her because both candidates for our Congressional District were Republican! Where were the Democrats? Immediately following the 2016 Presidential election, she started Placer Women Democrats. An ardent feminist, she drew women to her idea of women as activists and continues to do so as the co-chair of Catalyst Democrats.

No one is better suited to lead the fundraising team at PCDC – it’s what she does and who she is! As Director of Estate and Gift planning for the American Cancer Society in Northern California, Susan works with individuals and estate planning attorneys to help direct funds to the Cancer Society’s programs and services, including funding many prominent cancer researchers. In her travels, she has been to many communities and she has worked with many different types of people, all of which informs the work she will be doing for PCDC. Susan is calling us to help with fundraising – let’s answer her call!

You can reach Susan at 916.792.8866 or susan@persistentstrategies.com