You’ve seen his shtick. You’ve seen him take to Twitter to say that we all just need to be nicer to each other. That we have to get beyond this red versus blue stuff. That we can’t just put on our jersey and battle it out. A few examples:

Yeah, that’s all fake.

How do we know? Come on, we’ve always known. You’ve always known. It’s obvious enough.

But for the Sand believers out there (much like the John Edwards believers of 2008) they need hard proof. Well, here you go.

Last week, the Kirkwood Institute, run by attorney Alan Ostergren, sued Sand for violating the Open Records laws. Sand’s office communicated with liberal blogger Laura Belin multiple times, including about Sand’s political hit against Governor Reynolds over the Covid PSA, but Sand refuses to turn over those emails.

No one has yet to come to Sand’s defense. And Sand himself can’t seem to explain the basis for refusing to turn over the emails. So he’s resorted to personal attacks.

Sand’s spokesperson, Sonya Heitshusen, who is listed as the author of the legal report attacking the Governor (even though she is not a lawyer) told the Register’s Daniel Lathrop, that Ostergren is a “political hack.”

So much for “discourse without hubris,” not using “incendiary language” and the condemnation of using “irresponsible rhetoric” to “inflame social divisions.”

And so much for being transparent, which Sand so often pretends he is. Remember, Heitshusen is the same spokesperson who told me that Sand’s Office wouldn’t answer Iowa Field Report’s questions because its publisher (and your favorite author) doesn’t have a journalism degree.

We’ll see how the lawsuit against Sand plays out. But even Randy Evans, the liberal head of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, suggested to Lathrop that Sand is violating the law.

So who’s the political hack?