Wherever the news is, that’s where you usually find Rob Sand. Regardless of whether it’s an issue that’s in his jurisdiction, or regardless of whether he knows what he’s talking about, Sand does not hesitate to step in front of the cameras to tell us that he’s got it covered.
So you would think that when the Iowa Caucuses are in jeopardy and his party in shambles, Sand would step forward. But so far, he’s just hiding.
He’s spent a lot of time on Twitter—as he always does—but has said almost nothing about the caucus or the Iowa Democratic Party’s crisis. He took questions over Twitter this weekend but answered none about the Caucus. And he’s said nothing of the ridiculous legal opinion coming from IDP, even though Sand loves to give his legal opinions on almost everything. In fact, the legal opinion came from the spouse of his Chief of Staff. Surely he knows something about it.
Iowa press, are you asking him? Is he stonewalling you? Maybe he’s hiding out in that deer blind; he’s taken you there enough, so you should be able to find him.
We know, Sand needs to be handled with a light touch. But ask yourself this: If this were the Iowa Republican Party, and Governor Reynolds was there when it all came crumbling down, wouldn’t you be demanding answers and information from her? Wouldn’t you be demanding to know what she was going to do to lead her party?
Sand’s only real commentary about the Caucus-day meltdown was to blame pranksters for calling into the hotline, which he was staffing (at least for a few minutes). And on Friday, he promoted Iowa Starting Line’s silly spin that the Democract Caucus numbers were down because—wait for it—people were so happy with all the candidates that they saw no need to show up.
Sand wants to be seen as the next leader in the Iowa Democratic Party. But leaders show up even when it’s not sunshine and rainbows and Casey’s pizza.