Quick! Who is your state auditor?
Don’t feel bad. A few years ago I wouldn’t have known either. But in 2018 we flipped the Iowa State Auditor from red to blue and elected Rob Sand. Although a lawyer rather than the usual CPA, Rob had proved his worth prosecuting the Hot Lotto fraud scandal (and catching national attention as "The Man Who Cracked the Lottery in The New York Times".
He has buckled down to business in a hurry! He has already complete a hundred audits:
That’s from his official account, which is informative but also cheerful. Here’s his tweet for the hundredth audit:
Check out the replies — folks enjoy Rob’s style.
It’s not all fun and games. He is uncovering malfeasance, too:
He holds town halls, the first auditor to do that:
And on transparency Tuesdays, he has ask me anythings.
He has publicly stood up for the First Amendment:
He is also investigating the privatization of Medicare that the Republicans rushed through — I am confident he will find oodles to expose there.
All of these are from his official account (which is Twitter verified). He also has a personal account and it is both revealing and endearing. He describes himself as “Husband, dad, bowhunter. Caught chickens as a small town kid, crooks as Asst AG, & now catching wasted taxpayer $$$ as @iastateauditor” Rob’s son Axel gets a fair bit of coverage:
He replies to people who ask him questions:
One of his AMAs got this question:
Which led to strategy questions:
His Baltimore tweet:
He communicates through the standard media as well:
DMR
But Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, told the Register that he plans to investigate Foxhoven's departure. Sand said his senior leadership staff talked about Foxhoven's allegation Monday at their weekly meeting and agreed to look into the claim. Sand said his office has not determined whether its investigation of Foxhoven's resignation would come as part of its annual audits of the governor's office and DHS or as a special audit.
Sand said he agreed with Upmeyer that you can't draw conclusions solely from Foxhoven's comments. "But that's why I think it's important to investigate the facts so that we learn what those facts are," he said.
"Whether that comment is made publicly at a press conference or to a magazine, by its nature, it’s explosive," Sand said. "You have a cabinet member here who is making a pretty serious allegation."
DMR
The state auditor found more than $250,000 in questionable travel-related expenses at a northeast Iowa hospital that prompted the CEO to resign two years ago.
State Auditor Rob Sand issued a report Wednesday about its investigation into spending at the Regional Medical Center in Manchester, Iowa. The report detailed $256,675.52 in improper expenses and another $28,000 in charges that weren't properly documented.
Hospital Board Chairman Mike Briggs says several additional checks and balances were put in place after these problems were discovered, and the hospital will follow any additional recommendations from the auditor.
State Auditor is Sand’s first elective office! I walked twenty-five miles to canvass for Democrats in 2018 and collected 47 absentee ballot requests. I feel like Rob justifies every foot of it.
Fight for every office.
(full disclosure: he waved to me at Nordic Fest.)