Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court delivered a unanimous 7-0 reality check to the State Auditor, stripping him of his unauthorized subpoena power in the Davenport building collapse case. For anyone else, a 7-0 rebuke from the state’s highest Court would be a moment of deep reflection. For Rob Sand, it’s just the latest chapter in a career-long saga of grabbing headlines first and worrying about the legality later.
Rob Sand wants attention. He wants the cameras, the earned media, and the “heroic watchdog” narrative. The problem is that actually being a watchdog requires following the rules. Sand prefers the shortcut: identify an opportunity, demand powers the law doesn’t give him, and play the victim when the judicial branch reminds him he isn’t allowed.
In the Davenport case handed down last Friday, the Court made it clear: wanting power isn’t the same as having it. By trying to kick down the door of attorney-client privilege, Sand wasn’t seeking truth; he was seeking a front-page story. Lucky—he got a few, but they weren’t the ones he wanted.
Privacy for Me, Not for Thee
This worry about it later philosophy is most dangerous when it comes to Iowans’ privacy. As Iowa Field Report first revealed in 2020, Sand launched a feverish attempt to seize the Iowa Disease Surveillance System (IDSS).
He didn’t just want data; he wanted names, Social Security numbers, and the most intimate health records of every Iowan—including STD results and newborn blood tests. Sand admitted at the time he didn’t “need” the names, but insisted he was “entitled” to them.
The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Iowa Code § 11.41 is clear: the Auditor is strictly forbidden from viewing individual income tax returns. The legislature built that wall for a reason—to stop the Auditor’s office from being weaponized against private citizens. Yet, while the law says Sand can’t look at your taxes, he sought to see your medical history (also against the law. To Sand, a baby’s blood test is apparently fair game if it helps him land an interview on the evening news.
The Fabrication of “Confidentiality”
Sand’s brand of “transparency” is a total fabrication used to hide political coordination. Look no further than his multi-year legal battle with the Kirkwood Institute.
When Kirkwood asked for emails between Sand’s office and liberal blogger Laura Belin, Sand didn’t just stall; he tried to hide behind a “private email loophole.” Having been caught coordinating with Belin and an AP reporter on a political hit against the Governor, Sand actually argued in Court that the emails weren’t “public records” because they were sent on private accounts (Paging HRC)
It was a stunningly hypocritical move for a man who touts himself as “Mr. Transparency.” At first, he tried to argue that government business conducted on private email is a “private record.” The Supreme Court wasn’t fooled, ruling that Sand likely “unreasonably delayed” the records to hide his tracks.
“High Shoot’n” Heitshusen
Nowhere was Sand’s incompetence more visible than in his botched report attacking Governor Reynolds’ COVID-19 public awareness ads.
.@RobSandIA failed so badly at his attempted political hit against @KimReynoldsIA that he is now resorting to “auditing” what her office calls a statute. This guy is on full tilt. https://t.co/04PIkoV9Cu pic.twitter.com/L1pDKGQoYb
— Iowa Field Report.com (@IAFieldReport) June 3, 2021
Sand—a lawyer who regularly brags about getting into Harvard only to tell people he chose the University of Iowa because it would look better for his political future—produced a report claiming the Governor broke the law by addressing the public during an emergency. To make the hit piece work, Sand’s office literally cut the emergency exemption out of the statute in the report, pretending it didn’t exist.
The “investigation” wasn’t the work of an auditor; it was written by his Communications Director, a washed-up reporter, Sonya Heitshusen—or as we like to call her, “High Shoot’n Heitshusen.“ When you have a former TV personality writing your “audits” instead of a CPA, you aren’t looking for accountability—you’re writing a political press release on the taxpayers’ time.
The Governor was eventually totally cleared by the ethics board.
The Adult in the Room
Sand frequently complains that the Iowa Legislature is “stripping his authority.” The truth is the opposite: the legislature is the only thing keeping him on the straight and narrow.
Every six months, Sand finds a new way to push the envelope for the sake of earned media, regardless of what the law says. The legislature isn’t limiting him; they are trying to ensure he actually does the job he was elected to do, rather than using taxpayer dollars to run a permanent campaign headquarters.
That’s because Rob Sand has spent years auditioning for the Governor’s office—and every stunt, every overreach, every political press release disguised as an audit is part of that audition. The tragedy isn’t that he keeps losing in Court. It’s that Iowans are footing the bill for his gubernatorial ambitions while the actual work of the Auditor’s office gets treated as a campaign prop.
A real watchdog doesn’t need cameras and tweets to do its job. Sand has it exactly backwards. He’s not running the Auditor’s office—he’s running for Governor on the Auditor’s dime.
Seven justices just told him no. Iowans will have their chance next.
