Dawn Marie Sass
Sass in 2007
33rd Treasurer of Wisconsin
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2011
Governor	Jim Doyle
Preceded by	Jack Voight
Succeeded by	Kurt W. Schuller
Personal details
Born	(1959-09-18)September 18, 1959 (age 65) Milwaukee,Wisconsin, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (BA) National Louis University Keiser University (MBA)

Dawn Marie Sass (born September 18, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 33rdState Treasurer of Wisconsin from 2007 to 2011. She was the third female Treasurer in Wisconsin's history.

Born inMilwaukee, Wisconsin, Sass graduated from St. Mary's Academy. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science from theUniversity of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and did graduate work atNational Louis University.^[1] Sass later earned aMaster of Business Administration fromKeiser University.^[2]

Sass worked as a full-time Custody Placement Specialist, Juvenile Probation Officer, and Child Welfare Worker forMilwaukee County, where she was an active member and official of her union, theAmerican Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. She also worked as a part-time retail clerk at Boston Store (Wisconsin) and a part-time Pharmacy Technician at St. Luke's Hospital in Milwaukee.

Sass first ran for State Treasurer against incumbentRepublicanJack Voight in 1998; she lost with 754,177 votes (46.3%) to Voight's 814,380 (50.0%), with 31,452 (1.9%) for theWisconsin Greens nominee, 28,561 (1.7%) for theLibertarian Tim Peterson, and 171 (.01%) for theTaxpayers' Party candidate.^[3] She was a delegate to the2000 Democratic National Convention;^[4] and ran unsuccessfully for theWisconsin State Senate's33rd district in a 2001special election to succeedMargaret Farrow, losing the race toTed 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 forMilwaukee County Treasurer.

In 2006, she defeated incumbent Voight on November 7, 2006, in a narrowupset 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 byKurt W. Schuller.^[7]

During her term as State Treasurer, Sass traveled to all 72 Wisconsin counties every year of her four-year term. She credits former U.S. SenatorRuss Feingold for giving her the blueprint for the county visits (she had the honor after her election to visit several counties with the Senator). In her four years, Sass helped reunite Wisconsinites with just over $100 million in unclaimed property money, stream-lined the process for claiming unclaimed funds, and staffed the State Treasurer booth at the Wisconsin State Fair helping to process claims for visitors to the booth. Sass also started contests for school-aged children to raise awareness of the Wisconsin 529 savings plan - EdVest. The contests included a coloring contest for 1st - 3rd graders where they drew what they wanted to be when they grew up, an essay contest for 4-6th graders where they described what they wanted to be when they grew up and a video contest for 9th and 10th graders - where they made a video to describe what they wanted to be or how they would choose their college. The winners of the first coloring contest saw their drawings made into a poster that was distributed to public libraries throughout the state. The winners of the first essay contest were invited to the Governor's residence, with family and teachers, to read their essay's and enjoy a reception. The video winner's were invited to a U.W. Board of Regents meeting where they showed the winning videos and had a small reception after. Several of the members of the Board of Regents commented it was one of the best meetings they had attended. In all, sixty-seven students were awarded EdVest College Savings Accounts ranging from $500.00 to $1,000.00.

In February 2012, she lost to fellow DemocratsTim Carpenter andSpencer Coggs (like Sass, a former AFSCME activist) in the four-waynon-partisan primary to win a place on the ballot for Milwaukee CityTreasurer in the Spring 2012 election.^[8] Coggs polled 13,559 votes; Carpenter 12,880; Sass 5,089 andSocialist Rick Kissell 2,241.^[9]

In August 2014 she lost to former AssemblymanDavid 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 theDemocratic statewide primary forWisconsin State Treasurer, this time facing two female opponents. One of her opponents wasCynthia Kaump, a small business owner and financial professional fromMadison, 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 theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel that she owed money to a tax preparer business.^[12] Sass' main opponent in the primary wasEau Claire, Wisconsin native,Sarah Godlewski. Although a successful entrepreneur, Godlewski had an inside track as she was the National Finance Council co-chair ofReady PAC, the apolitical action committee in support of theHillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. She was also the Wisconsin Women's Director for Clinton's 2016 campaign.^[13] Godlewski co-chaired, withJack Voight, 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 eliminate the office of state treasurer.^[14]

In 2020, Sass (who had moved toBelleville, Wisconsin) announced her candidacy forGreen CountySupervisor.^[15] 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."^[15] She faced attorney Skip Miller and in the April election and was elected with 62% of the vote.

• Follow the Money - Dawn Marie Sass 2006 campaign contributions

• 1959 births
• 20th-century American women politicians
• 21st-century Wisconsin politicians
• 20th-century Wisconsin politicians
• 21st-century American women politicians
• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees people
• Candidates in the 1998 United States elections
• Candidates in the 2002 United States elections
• Living people
• National Louis University alumni
• Politicians from Milwaukee
• Probation and parole officers
• State treasurers of Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni
• Wisconsin Democrats
• Women in Wisconsin politics

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