Statewide Iowa — State Auditor Rob Sand says he hasn’t made a decision about the 2022 campaign. Sand, a Democrat, won a four-year term as state auditor in 2018 in his first race for elected office.
(as above) “Looking at reelection, potentially running for governor, maybe running for U.S. Senate,” Sand says.
Last fall, Sand questioned the 21 million dollars in federal pandemic relief funds Republican Governor Kim Reynolds spent on new computer software for some state agencies — the state legislature this year provided state funds instead for the purchase.
(as above) “The bigger issue to me is that we’ve got — at this point it’s late April — close to $1 billion sitting in the state’s accounts while Iowans are suffering,” Sand said, “and at any point a special (legislative) session could have been called, the legislature could have passed something to get that money out there to struggling small business owners to make sure that they can get through this pandemic and Iowa’s culture in our small towns maintains what it used to be, so we have a normal to come back to.”
Governor Reynolds has said the state doesn’t have the resources to make all businesses whole after pandemic-related losses. Sand cites the Iowa Restaurant Association’s prediction that a thousand restaurants will close due to the pandemic.
(as above) “You have people who have poured their lives into creating a gathering place for their community and it might be the only one there and now this pandemic comes along and through no fault of that business owner they’ve had to shut down and they’ve lost their business,” Sand says. “The fact that they have been unwilling to help, unwilling to assist, to me is wild.”
Sand says Reynolds should have used the state budget surplus to help because federal aid came too late for a lot of Iowa business owners.
(as above) “It was bizarre to me to see the governor of Iowa say: ‘That’s the federal government’s job,'” Sand said. “She’s elected to look out for the state of Iowa, to serve the people of Iowa and instead of Iowans getting what they need in this time of need, she’s going to do with that money what she wants.”
Sand says his critiques of Governor Reynolds aren’t a signal he’s running for governor, however, and may choose to seek reelection as state auditor.
(as above) “I’ve got a 4-and-a-half-year-old, a freshly-minted 7-year-old at home,” Sand said. “These are big questions. They’re hard to balance and there are certainly things that weigh in both directions and I just haven’t finished weighing them.”
A spokesman for the Iowa Republican Party says Governor Reynolds took a balanced approach to the pandemic that kept Iowa’s economy moving and he accused Sand of carrying water for liberals and lobbing character attacks at Republicans. Sand made his comments during taping of the “Iowa Press” program on Iowa PBS. Last weekend, Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig was on the program and Naig, a Republican, announced he plans to seek reelection in 2022.
