Sand touts working together during stop in Clayton County

By Audrey Posten

Iowa State Auditor and Democratic candidate for governor Rob Sand visited Clayton County last week as part of his annual 100-stop tour around the state. 

Speaking in the Central State Bank Community Room in Elkader on Oct. 8, Sand, who is from Decorah and whose mom worked for 20 years at Keystone AEA, said the stop felt “like I’m close to home.”

During the hour-long visit—which included a half-hour pitch from Sand, then a question and answer period—Sand touted the benefits of finding common ground and working together across political backgrounds. A show of hands at the beginning of the event demonstrated that, while around 70 percent of the room included Democrats, there were registered Republicans and Independents in attendance too.

According to Sand, one of the goals of his town halls is “so we can have a room where we mix it up politically. The more we can do that, the better.”

Sand described the current political system as “broken.”

“We elect people to solve our problems, but they quickly find out solving problems is hard and they can continue their political career by simply demonizing our only other option. Because when we only have two choices, it’s easy to force us to vote for someone we’re not particularly excited about. When we do this decade after decade, we arrive at a point where all of us are intensely frustrated because our problems get bigger and they get more numerous and our candidates and their campaigns get more vile and venomous,” he shared. “They try to convince us the people we love who vote differently from us are the bad guys. I refuse to believe that. I’m sick of it...We should end the special privileges the Democratic and Republican parties enjoy, and we shouldn’t be forced to pick between the lesser of two evils. That is the heart of this campaign.”

Through his career as a prosecutor with the attorney general’s office, then as state auditor, Sand said he’s sought proactive approaches. He has promoted government efficiency and improved investigations by working with others, often from differing political backgrounds.

“People who think differently sharpen each other’s thinking. Do you notice a theme emerging here?” he asked the crowd.

Sand said he was frustrated by the state legislature and governor’s efforts to hinder the auditor’s office after a record amount of miss-spent money was discovered during his first term. 

“The legislature and governor signed a law so that state agencies and departments can hide evidence of waste and abuse from the auditor’s office. It is a violation of one of the most important trusts of government: to tell the people paying for it what is happening with their money. This is wrong,” Sand said. 

“And what have we gotten?” he continued. “We have an economy that’s 49th in America. Personal income growth—the money we are making as Iowans—is growing at the 48th worst pace in America. But our growth rate for cancer is number one.”

Cancer causes and research, as well as healthcare, were some of the topics audience members brought up to Sand during the question and answer period. Another attendee mentioned IPERS and one asked about agriculture—how diversification could be encouraged without threatening “big ag” and having them lobby against it. Two attendees wanted Sand’s take on topics that tie into current federal issues: deploying National Guard troops to other states and the role of the state patrol in assisting ICE.

If elected, Sand said he’ll work for Iowans, not the political system. 

“One of the questions we ask when we vote for someone is ‘Is this going to change you?’ Are you going to say, ‘I don’t want to do anything to spoil my chances or spoil the friends I’ve made, so I’ll go along with it.’ Or are you going to say, ‘Well, the way you’ve always done it is wrong, and it should change,’” Sand stated. “I’m going to do what’s right for you, and I don’t care if it means I’m having awkward conversations or meetings in Des Moines.”