So, take me back a little bit, tell me about, how long have you lived in Ozaki County?
When did you first start getting active in politics?
I've lived in Ozaki County since 1975.
I started teaching at Port Washington High School Ben.
And I've been active in politics for probably since high school on some level, but active
as far as a county party chair the last four years I've been on the state.
I've been committee for probably eight, nine years and it's really been a lot of fun here.
It really has been.
So walk me through in the brief synopsis of things that have changed different times.
I mean most people know if they know of Ozaki County they know it as one of the wild
counties.
Right, right.
And I always say there would be no wild without Ozaki because it would just be woof.
But Ozaki County, it's changed in a lot of ways.
So I think when I first started teaching at Port Washington to now there's been a lot
of demographic changes in population for one thing.
We have people moving to the county from other parts of the country, other parts of
the state and that's changed I think the way people view the world here.
How so?
I guess when did you start getting a sense that?
I would say we really started to see some movement in about 2018 where being from a
conservative county when we first started out we were probably about I'd say 70-30
Republican and at the referendum I guess we were 50-50.
So the movement has been, our goal as a county party has been to have a progressive voice
so that people want to live here and feel comfortable here because that hasn't always
been the case.
When I would put out signs for Bill Clinton people would literally drive over my front
yard and back into the street to mow them over in Cedarburg.
That doesn't happen anywhere.
That doesn't sound like a big thing.
But I mean that kind of thing doesn't happen and it's far more 50-50 in Cedarburg than
it went for Biden by 19 votes in 2020.
But we've really been very, very vigilant about making sure we're visible.
We're at the parades, we're at the fair, we write letters to the editor, we put ads
out, get involved in community activities as far as food banks and meals and just wanting
people to know who we are and what we stand for.
When I was in Green Bay I heard a similar story from Christy Welts talking about for
years.
She would talk to people who thought they were just living by themselves like the only
Democrats surrounded by Republicans and how isolating that could feel.
So what does it mean for people when they realize they're not alone in their political
beliefs and that other people do agree with them?
I think victories lead to more victories and here, same thing, if I'm knocking a door
and they'll say, well I'm the only one, I'm like no actually that person, that person,
that person, that person in this neighborhood are all Democrats.
But it was intimidating to say you were a Democrat at one point and very dismissive.
I think during the Scott Walker recall years when I would be collecting signatures in
downtown Cedarburg, people would yell at me go back to Milwaukee.
So I would say since then, since we've had Governor Evers in Madison, it makes people
hopeful that their positions are valid.
So what have you seen this year?
And I guess take me back to when Biden was still the nominee coming off the debate.
There were a lot of Democrats.
What was that feeling like?
We had, and I don't, I love President Biden, know that.
I think he's been a great president, he's been a great patriot, his family has been.
We had a debate party here that night and when President Biden walked out onto the podium
was like, oh boy, and the mood here was very solemn.
And we actually had people say, I'm not, I'm going to vote for him, but I'm not going
to do yours, you know, I'm not going to volunteer.
When he passed the torch, and I love what Vice President Harris says that he passed
the torch to all of us, not to her, I've never, I mean, you saw, people are coming in today
because they see our door open, getting signs, volunteering, it's really been encouraging.
There's people that have been here I've never seen before, and you know, we're not a very
big county, and you know, our county party is growing quite rapidly.
When I first was active, we literally had 10 members, I'm not kidding, 10.
And now we're, you know, we're a little over 300, which on paper, which much less all the
people that are volunteering that don't necessarily join the party.
So it, I've never seen this many people wanting to volunteer ever, as I've seen, and I, and
we had the, President Obama had his office in Cedarburg when he ran in 2012, and we didn't
have this kind of activity.
It's been to me, the difference between an enthusiastic voter and a reluctant voter,
because they both count as one vote.
But what difference does that mean, though?
I think it's the energy that they give to everybody else, you know, or their willingness
to do more than just vote.
Are there willingness to write, as I said, we spend a pretty vigilant letter to the
other campaign.
But the difference is that they're willing to talk to their neighbor, they're willing
to say, I think about even in my own family, daughters-in-law that live in Seattle, they're
like, well, you know, I'll vote for them.
But, you know, now they're like, yes, this is exciting.
This is a new generation of thinking and faces, and it's just been a very emotive experience.
You know, people are emotionally charged, and it's great.
What are you seeing from the other side?
Because if the RNC, Republicans were more unified around Donald Trump than they'd ever
seen before coming off the assassination attempt with Joe Biden still in nominee, they thought,
we are going to win, and it's going to be a blowout.
I mean, they were telling their people, don't get too overconfident.
What are you seeing since then?
Are you able to gauge that?
Well, I was at the DNC, and it was fabulous, obviously.
I mean, it was really an exciting experience.
And being in Wisconsin caucus, we had, you know, all these people coming in for breakfast,
talking to us from, you know, from Elizabeth Warren to Jamie Raskin to Cory Booker.
And you know, it's just been an enthusiasm, and I think people sitting down and looking
at the issues.
And on the side here in Ozaki County, still, in my opinion, has a hard time dealing with
the fact that we exist.
The chair of the Republican Party wrote a pretty, I thought, toxic editorial saying
that he'll vote for the felon in comparing Joe Biden to someone that runs a Russian
Gulag.
So they still have kind of an entitled view of this county in terms of how dare there
be people that think differently.
And that's been our experience, not just me, but, you know, our county party.
Talk to me a little bit about the significance of a day like today, where you have someone
coming in that you may not have bothered to swing through the wild counties back in
the day.
You know, we've had, I mean, right after the convention, we had Senator Warren here,
and then we had Katie Kate Walsh and Debbie Wasserman-Scholes and Thenesville at an event.
And yes, these people were not swinging through Ozaki County, and no one knows, people generally
don't know where Milwaukee is much less Ozaki County.
It's really energizing, and people feel like I flattered, you know, they're encouraged,
you know, the idea that this, they're here because they care about our vote and our action.
So it makes a big, again, it's like this idea of victories leads to more victories.
So those little kinds of having, you know, first lady walls here from Minnesota is exciting.
People are really, they're flattered.
And there's an interesting parallel in there that Minnesota had been under Republican leadership
for a while, similar to Wisconsin, they were able to flip their chambers and they make
a lot of changes with very narrow majorities.
Absolutely.
I mean, do people in Wisconsin see a roadmap there?
Absolutely.
I mean, we have Minnesota envy here.
There's no doubt about that.
I mean, from, I mean, I was a teacher in Act 10, you know, devastated public unions, and
you have a public, former public school teacher as a governor is a whole different view of
the world.
Yes, I think, I think that if you look at the economy in Minnesota, which is ranked
between third and sixth, depending upon the criteria, we're ranked 43rd.
Yes, our hope is that we can make life better for people in Wisconsin.
If we can move those, the assembly and the Senate because they'll just a stranglehold
on the governor right now.
And then you were telling me about signs.
And I, there's a lot of Democratic strategists that say signs don't vote.
I'm sure you've had to-
I've heard that a lot.
My own son says that to me all the time.
But what's your response in terms of what do, what does it mean when people want signs?
They want to be able to say, boom, I'm voting for Harris.
You know, I'm voting for Tammy.
I'm voting for Jody.
I'm voting, they want to be able to say that.
And there was a time when the state party would not give us any signs.
Like when I talk about the Bill Clinton piece, I'd have to go to Milwaukee by the signs and
bring them back to my house.
They didn't want to waste their money here.
And now we have, you know, a field organizer.
We have an engagement organizer.
We have a regional organizer and lots of signs.
And it's interesting too because we have, you know, it was Aki County goes from a very
wealthy mequan and then we get go up the lake and we're very rural.
And I think in rural areas especially, signs make a difference.
And so we, I picked up close to 400 signs last week, we've got 10 left.
And we're picking up another 400 today.
And so even, as I said, people were coming in the office because they saw the door open,
you know, saying, I'm putting this on, my neighbor has, you know, so I'm doing this.
So yeah, it makes it, I've heard all the, all the same argument that signs don't vote.
But it gives people confidence, as you were saying earlier, you know, you knock a door
and you say, well, this house, this house, this house, this house, well, now there's
actually a sign that gives people kind of a breath of confidence in their political
view.
All right.
So where are you picking the signs up from?
The Milwaukee office in Bayview.
Okay.
All right.
Anything else that you want to add along the lines we've been talking about?
I think we're going to win this.
So wild stab in the dark, I probably won't put this on, but I'm curious, you know, I
showed you those numbers.
The Center for Politics have put out, you know, 50-50 in, you know, it's a technically
nonpartisan, but you know, partisan slanted.
What do you think is an, what would be an excellent outcome?
I think for us, if we got close to 50, seriously, I think it's 40, absolutely basement for
you or you.
40's basement.
We'll, we'll do much better than that.
I mean, we did better than that in, in 2020.
So yes, I think we're going to, you know, all the indications of, of the amount of people
that have said to me, like I'm walking around my little neighborhood and I'll see a yard
sign and I'll say, and I can't tell which yard it's in.
And these people are sitting in their, in their, in their garage and they'll say, you
know, it's, it's, it's a democratic sign and then I'll say, is this your yard?
And they're like, yes.
And I said, well, I'm Chair of the Milwaukee County Democratic Party and they all, well,
you know, I'm a Republican, but I can't vote for Trump.
That's the kind of, we've got a lot of former Republicans in our party.
And I'd be curious if there's a lot of former Democrats in the Republican party.
I'd find that hard to believe.
All right.
Can I get you to say in spell your name, give me a title?
So I'll have it clicked on.
Sure.
Deb, Dasso, D-E-B, D-A-S-S-O-W, Chair of the, of the Ozaki County Democratic Party.
And what is the worst mispronunciation of your last name you've heard?
Desau.
So it's Dasso, like, Darrow, like, A-R-O.
I mean, think about being in a college class of, is, is Deborah Desau here and you're like,
yep.
Yeah, I guess you could put, yeah, that did, okay, I get it.
That's pretty bad.
So.
All right.
Thank you so much for giving us time.
I really appreciate it.