Dawn Marie Sass

Dawn Marie Sass (born September 18, 1959) is a former civil servant and retail clerk who was the Democratic State Treasurer of Wisconsin from 2007–2011. She was the third female Treasurer in Wisconsin's history.

Background

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sass graduated from St. Mary's Academy and from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She did graduate work at National-Louis University.[1] She worked as a parole officer in Milwaukee County, where she was an active member and official of her union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees)[2] and as a retail clerk at Boston Store. She also worked in Children's Court in Milwaukee County.

Public office and campaigns

Sass first ran for State Treasurer against incumbent Republican Jack Voight in 1998; she lost with 754,177 votes (46.3%) to Voight's 814,380 (50.0%), with 31,452 (1.9%) for the Wisconsin Greens nominee, 28,561 (1.7%) for the Libertarian Tim Peterson, and 171 (.01%) for the Taxpayers' Party candidate.[3] She was a delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention;[4] and ran unsuccessfully for the Wisconsin State Senate's 33rd District in a 2001 special election to succeed Margaret Farrow, losing the race to Ted Kanavas 10,238 to 3,557. She ran once more in 2002 against Voight, losing again with 720,445 votes to Voight's 824,049 and 114,955 for Green Paul Aschenbrenner;[5] and ran unsuccessfully in 2004 for Milwaukee County Treasurer.

In 2006, she defeated incumbent Voight on November 7, 2006, in a narrow upset victory by a margin of 8,648 votes(0.42%) with little party support. She had spent almost $4000 on the race, most of it coming from her own pocket (she was working as a store clerk at Boston Store at this time).[6]

On November 2, 2010, Sass was defeated for reelection by Kurt W. Schuller.[7]

In February 2012, she lost to fellow Democrats Tim Carpenter and Spencer Coggs (like Sass, a former AFSCME activist) in the four-way non-partisan primary to win a place on the ballot for Milwaukee City Treasurer in the Spring 2012 election.[8] Coggs polled 13,559 votes; Carpenter 12,880; Sass 5,089 and Socialist Rick Kissell 2,241.[9]

In August 2014 she lost to former Assemblyman David Cullen for the Democratic nomination for Milwaukee County Treasurer; Cullen drew 38,492 votes (53%) to Sass' 33,729 (47%). (There was no candidate in any other party's primary in that race.)[10]

In 2018, she ran in the Democratic statewide primary for Wisconsin State Treasurer, this time facing two female opponents. One of her opponents was Cynthia Kaump, a small business owner and financial professional from Madison, Wisconsin, who also had been a political and investigative reporter on television news for over two decades.[11] However, Kaumps’ momentum as she was gaining in the polls dropped significantly when a week before the primary it was revealed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she owed money to a tax preparer business.[12] Sass’ main opponent in the primary was Eau Claire, Wisconsin native, Sarah Godlewski. Although a successful entrepreneur and lobbyist, Godlewski had an inside track as she was the National Finance Council Co-Chair for Ready for Hillary, the 2016 PAC for Hillary Clinton in her Presidential campaign and was the Wisconsin Women's Director for Clinton's 2016 Presidential bid.[13] She also teamed up with Sass’ nemesis, Jack Voight to co-chair the Save Our Fiscal Watchdog Committee, a successful grassroots Get Out The Vote effort which defeated an April 2018 proposed amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution to remove the office of State Treasurer.[14] Sass ran a spirited campaign stating if she won, “Sass says her goal as treasurer if she were to win this year would be to create a “State Bank of Wisconsin” to offer low-cost loans and services to citizens.[15] Sass’ multiple campaigns gave her such an advantage that Godlewski & Kaump had to spend heavily on television ads to close the gap.[15] In the end Godlewski won the Wisconsin Democratic Party State Convention straw vote that was largely meaningless.[16] However that and her television ad campaign allowed Godlewski to garner 41% to Sass’ 34% and 25% for Kaump.

In 2020, Sass (who had moved to Belleville, Wisconsin) filed for Green County Supervisor.[17] She focused her campaign on corporate farms stating: “Green County has always been a farming community. These large farms are pushing farming families out that have been in our community for generations. We all need to help each other and fight for small family farms.”[17] She faced attorney Skip Miller and in the April election was elected with 62% of the vote.[18]

Electoral history
2006 State Treasurer of Wisconsin Election[19]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Dawn Marie Sass 969,115 47.36
Republican Jack Voight 960,467 46.94
Green Winston Sephus 59,541 2.91
Libertarian Tim Peterson 57,063 2.79
gollark: They mostly buzz, beeping is rare.
gollark: Smoke alarms? Fridges? Random appliances? Hidden bees? Washing machines?
gollark: GTech™.
gollark: Technically, their original codebase dates to mid-2018, so 3.
gollark: Besides, it more accurately reflects the fuzzy, nondeterministic nature of networking.

References
  1. 'The State of Wisconsin Blue Book 2009–2010, biographical sketch of Dawn Marie Sass, p. 4
  2. "Two Dems Vie for Treasurer Job: Fyrst, Sass are in Primary". The Capital Times September 9, 2002
  3. Barish, Lawrence S.; Meloy, Patricia E., eds. State of Wisconsin 1999-2000 Blue Book Madison: Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, distributed by Document Sales, 1999-2000; p. 893
  4. Barish, Lawrence S.; Meloy, Patricia E., eds. State of Wisconsin 2001-2002 Blue Book Madison: Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, distributed by Document Sales, 2001-2002; p. 934
  5. Barish, Lawrence S., ed. State of Wisconsin 2003-2004 Blue Book Madison: Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, distributed by Document Sales, 2003–2004; pp. 908,933
  6. "On 3rd try, it all adds up". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
  7. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/106585693.html
  8. Sandler, Larry. "Coggs, Carpenter to square off for treasurer" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel February 21, 2012
  9. Official election results
  10. Stokes, Karen. "Wisconsin voters are headed to the polls to decide a variety of primary races" Milwaukee Courier August 9, 2014
  11. https://patch.com/wisconsin/across-wi/meet-cynthia-kaump-candidate-wisconsin-state-treasurer
  12. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/08/10/democrat-republican-candidates-face-scrutiny-before-primary-state-treasurer-race/923772002/
  13. https://ballotpedia.org/Sarah_Godlewski
  14. https://cvpost.org/memorial-grad-sets-up-her-own-company-returns-to-eau-claire-and-helps-lead-efforts-to-retain-state-treasurers-office/
  15. https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/columnists/christian-schneider/2018/07/20/wisconsin-state-treasurer-no-vote-best-idea/800625002/
  16. https://www.wispolitics.com/2018/wispolitics-com-dem-conventioneers-prefer-roys-for-governor/
  17. https://themonroetimes.com/local-2020-election-coverage/election-2020-profile-dawn-marie-sass/
  18. http://www.co.green.wi.gov/docview.asp?docid=26771&locid=148
  19. "2006 Wisconsin Election Returns". TouchTMJ4.com (WTMJ-TV). Archived from the original on 2006-11-28. Retrieved 2007-01-19.
Preceded by
Jack Voight		 State Treasurer of Wisconsin
2007 – 2011		 Succeeded by
Kurt Schuller
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