On Oct. 24 Ron Dotzauer, political strategist, founder of Strategies360 and CWU political science alum, came back to speak to students about his political journey and how students can get involved in politics.
Chair of the Political Science department and moderator of the event Todd Schaefer introduced Dotzauer, “In 1974 he was elected the youngest county official in Washington State, and then later he went on to be campaign manager for successful campaigns, both for Washington governor and US senator, including Maria Cantwell’s razor thin march in victory in 2000 so I think he knows something about close elections.”
While Dotzauer went on to become a successful campaign manager, political strategist and business man, he says he didn’t start out his adult life caring at all about politics. Prior to coming to CWU to study political science, Dotzauer was a combat medic in the Vietnam War. “I kind of got political religion from sitting over there,” Dotzauer said, “I have to tell you very candidly, prior to that experience, I couldn’t even spell politics, it wasn’t on my radar screen. I did not give a good golly darn about politics and what it meant in my life, but after getting shot at everyday for a while, I started to think about, wow, okay, what’s going on here? Who’s making these decisions about my life? […] I thought, you know, the military is not making some very good decisions about what we’re doing over here and why we’re here.”
Dotzauer said he thought to himself back then that he had eleven months left, and his chances of making it home were far from high. He had had his hat shot off, and there were bullet holes and shrapnel in his backpack, but being in the warzone had opened his eyes to something he hadn’t ever cared about before, “And so I decided that I needed to get back and see if I could change the world.”
Dotzauer did make it home, and after his schooling he went on to do just that, try and change the world. “I kind of self taught myself on the campaign business. I used to travel around the country on my own nickel to learn from the best in the business throughout the United States, and then I would come back to Clark County, and that was kind of my petri dish. Pretty soon I had elected the county sheriff, the prosecuting attorney, the judges, the legislators, the county commissioner.” Dotzauer said that after that his reputation grew quickly, and soon he had senators, congressmen and governors contacting him for help on their campaigns.
To young people with aspirations of a political career, Dotzauer stresses the importance of volunteer work, “Get yourself in a situation. I’ve seen people walk in the door of campaigns I’ve run, they started out as volunteers, then two months into the campaign they run the finance department, or run the volunteer program or whatever the opportunities are there. You’ve got to earn your career so to speak, if you want to learn and grow and get that opportunity, it’s not just given. You’ve got to pay your dues, but if you pay your dues and you listen and learn, you’ll achieve success, I promise you.”
