Leadership and character building - those are attributes Rice Lake businessman Dane Deutsch says he brings to the table as he launches a campaign for the 25th District state senate seat.
The Republican is challenging veteran Sen. Bob Jauch for the seat the Poplar Democrat has held since 1986.
Deutsch earned a commission in the U.S. Air Force at the University of Wisconsin-Superior in 1982, which launched an eight-year career in the communications field in the armed forces. While serving at Eglin Air Force base in Florida, he said he volunteered for service in Turkey.
"I couldn't believe I was volunteering for service in Turkey but I really wanted to learn about communications," he said. Over the next five years, Deutsch said he served three tours in Turkey including serving as the chief of maintenance for the country.
"It was the largest chief of maintenance job in the world, so basically anything electronics from Iraq to Istanbul, the Black Sea to the Med[iterranean] was my responsibility," Deutsch said.
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During his service in the U.S. Air Force, the married father of four, said he learned the leadership skills that he believes would serve residents of the 25th District well.
"I spent more than 80 percent of my time just taking care of my people," he said. "You got a lot of people on these remote sites 18 months at a time ... I spent a lot of time to make sure their saunas worked, that they had good food and they had ping pong balls and pool cues for their off time. Then they took care of the mission; I didn't have to worry about that."
"If you listen to your people and take good care of your people, they'll take care of you," he said. "That's part of my definition of what it is to be a statesman."
He said he envisions the role of a state senator as a statesman rather than politician.
"We always talk about playing politics," the Rice Lake businessman said. "Right now there is a huge mistrust in the current politicians, and I think the statesman is a little different in that the statesman works to represent the people and make sure their voice is being heard. I think my role is that I can actually restore that voice again."
Deutsch said resigned his commission after eight years and returned home to Rice Lake when he learned his father was in failing health to build his extended family. In addition to running two businesses since returning home and the Leadership Management Development Center, he is an ambassador and trainer for Character Counts, a program of the Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics.
After returning to Rice Lake "I had three goals," he said.
Today, two of those goals have been met - Deutsch and wife have run a Deutsch's Gymnastics training center for about 20 years and a technology firm, DCS Netlink, a company that specializes in network security, for more than 19 years.
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He said his third goal was to run for the state senate.
"We've been faithful to those two for the last 20 years, and the timing seems right to be running for that," Deutsch said. "That's why I am in this particular race."
