Career day at Samuelson Elementary School in Des Moines saw the state auditor, Rob Sand, assemble a table in the gymnasium alongside a dozen other adults with jobs. But unlike the other adults who had brought props, Sand had only a stack of fliers, and for an hour, the rail-thin auditor stood alone while most of the children gave him a wide berth. Sand has spent the past two months practically begging people to care about his job after Iowa Republicans passed a bill in March limiting the auditor’s access to information, against the Democrat’s loud objections, and the governor is expected to sign it soon. This blatantly partisan move is meant to defang the last remaining Democrat in a statewide elected position. Sand is the lone Democrat in state office, and he is a glimmer of hope for his party in Iowa, where the past several years have brought only defeat after miserable defeat. Sand’s Republican adversaries made an attempt to clip his wings by passing the auditor bill, but in doing so, they have paid him a compliment. “He’s [got] an early leg up to be the Democratic nominee” for governor, said David Yepsen, a former chief political reporter at the Des Moines Register.
Sand is a Democrat who hunts, and bowhunting may be a genuine passion, but it’s also part of the myth he’s built up around himself. He wears camo and seed-company hats. He goes to church every Sunday. Sand often says that he hates political parties and constantly paraphrases John Adams: “My greatest fear is two great parties united only in their hatred of each other.” Sand’s office discovered during the coronavirus pandemic that the Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, had misspent federal relief money on two occasions. Sand’s office had also defended the governor on other occasions such as when some residents accused the Iowa Department of Public Health of fudging COVID numbers.
Last year was not a good one for Democrats in Iowa, as only Sand was re-elected. The two other Democrats in state office were knocked out of their seats, and the governor was heard on tape in the Spring of 2022 saying that she wanted her “own” attorney general and “a state auditor that’s not trying to sue me every time they turn around.” Now the Republican lawmakers are trying to deliver just that with the new auditor bill, which is a comically obvious targeting of Sand. Even six Republicans in the Iowa statehouse voted against it, saying it opens the door to corruption and doesn’t matter who’s in [the office]—that’s wrong. Respected, nonpolitical organizations such as the American Institute of CPAs and the National State Auditors Association have spoken out against the bill affecting Sand, which is another example of “total politics”—a growing phenomenon in which politicians “use every legal tool at their disposal to gain advantage” without regard for democratic norms or long-term effects.
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