Louise Thornton

Louise "Lou" Thornton is a character in the NBC television series "The West Wing" portrayed by Janeane Garofalo. The character's first appearance is in Season 7 of the series.

Character biography

Thornton's involvement in Matt Santos' presidential campaign was entirely accidental – Josh Lyman had told campaign staffer Ronna Beckman "not" to invite her to a meeting of Democratic media consultants, however Beckman misunderstood and did invite her. However it was Thornton's critical analysis of Josh's campaign management which lead to him asking her to join the campaign as Communications Director, reporting to him. Santos persuaded her to join, but on the condition that she reported to him and not Josh. Josh explained the reason for hiring her: "..she's got an IQ of 200, she knows this image stuff backwards and sideways and it's better than having her on the outside lobbing mortars.."

As Communications Director of the Santos campaign, Thornton advocates a combative approach towards the presidential campaign of Republican frontrunner Arnold Vinick: in contrast to Josh Lyman, she favored the launch of negative ads, portraying Vinick as a typical Washington insider tainted by more than two decades of service in the United States Senate. During the campaign, she was also involved in a "campaign fling" with fellow staffer Otto. Lou mentions in one episode that her home state is New Jersey.

Following Santos' victory in the election Josh persuaded Thornton to join the incoming Santos administration as Communications Director.