WHAT IOWANS ARE READING: Front Pages Across the State Highlight Rob Sand’s 100 Town Hall Tour Across Iowa

“I want to get back to divided government. That’s an Iowa tradition,” said Rob Sand.

DES MOINES, IA — This past week, nominee for governor Rob Sand continued his annual 100 Town Hall Tour across Iowa. In community after community, Iowans have filled rooms to ask questions, share concerns, and talk about their challenges — Republicans, Democrats, independents and everyone in between.

Learn more about Rob’s recent 100 Town Hall Tour stops below:

Clear Lake Mirror Reporter: Enter Sand Man: Gov. candidate visits Cerro Gordo

Iowa State Auditor and candidate for governor, Rob Sand, visited Cerro Gordo County last week, giving a talk to a full room of republicans, democrats and independents alike.
“I think there’s just a general frustration with the direction of things in Iowa,” Sand said. “People are seeing massive corruption. They’re paying high costs, and they’re also hearing way too much about too many people having cancer. And so, those are three of the issues that we’re pretty focused on in this race. But I also go everywhere and I talk to everyone, and so what I talk about is dependent in part on what Iowans actually want to hear.”

Bremer County Independent: Sand Storm Sweeps Through Waverly as Candidates Continue County Tours

During his campaign stop in Waverly last Thursday, Iowa Auditor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand continued his message that Iowa’s political system is broken and needs to be rebuilt around accountability, local control and cooperation across party lines.
Sand spoke to roughly 350 people at the Bremer County Fairgrounds Thursday as part of his 99-county tour. Rather than speaking from a stage to an audience seated in rows, Sand asked attendees to turn their chairs into a circle so he could have what he described as a more direct conversation with voters.
“I’m not going to pull punches,” Sand explained, speaking about all political parties. “When something happens that’s corrupt, it’s corrupt. I’m going to call it corrupt.”

Daily Gate City: Sand attempts to look beyond party politics

Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for Iowa Governor, said he has never been a fan of the two party system.
“I don’t think it’s unfair that we should force politicians to work for us,” he said.
Sand said Jesus was for the little guy, and it seems that the Democratic party is as well. But, he did not lose his independence. “It’s easier to tell you what I think than remember what I said,” he said.
Sand said right now, with one party in control from the top down, the legislature treats Gov. Kim Reynolds more like the party boss than being in a co-equal branch of government. He said the people listening to him on Monday at the Labor Temple will have spent more time doing that than the government oversight committee in Des Moines has spent all year looking at issues.

Kalona News: Over 50 town halls down, less than 90 days to go: Rob Sand stops in Washington

When Rob Sand entered KC Hall Tuesday morning in Washington, it was to applause from members of all parties – Republican, Democrat, and Independent. A raise of hands provided evidence of the mix, which was not a surprise for the candidate who argues Iowa should return to “not being either a Democratic or a Republican state, but being a good government state.”
“I’ll tell you when I registered as a Democrat, I didn’t leave my independent mind behind. I still think for myself,” he said. “I know I have said things in the course of this campaign that upset some of the people in my party. I’m not sorry. I would rather tell you what I think than try to remember what I said. It’s so much easier.”
“One of my golden rules, one of my north stars, is I take a situation and I think, what would a politician do in this situation? And then I do the opposite. When people who think differently from each other work together, they get better answers,” he said.
“I want to get back to divided government. That’s an Iowa tradition,” he said. “That means that if I win, every bill that gets passed has to have bipartisan approval. Every budget that gets passed has to have bipartisan approval. That means that every solution and every problem that’s addressed has to be something that the vast majority of people agree is a problem, and a vast majority of people agree it will be a solution.”

Ottumwa Courier: Reaching out to everyone

Around the 67-minute mark, Rob Sand paused for a few seconds, his eyes welling up with tears. “I don’t want to raise my children in a place where they feel like they can judge someone just because of how they voted,” the Democratic nominee for state governor said. “Where they are told the world is so simple or complex that the only thing you need to know is if someone’s waving a red flag or a blue flag.
Sand, whose 100 Town Hall Tour has possessed a big-event feel almost everywhere he goes, made his 65th stop Tuesday at the Rural Health Education Center on the Indian Hills Community College campus in front of approximately 275 people, according to Sand campaign figures. The line to get in extended outside the doors 30 minutes before he was scheduled to speak.
“Our values — being respectful, telling the truth, do you best — don’t belong to one private club or another, and I’m sick of pretending that they do,” he said. “I know we all feel this way, but if we can do something about it, we can get to a place where we feel like Iowa is Iowa again, where people work together.

Southeastern Iowa Union: Governor nominee Rob Sand holds town hall in Washington

As part of his 100 Town Hall Tour across Iowa and his campaign for Governor, current state auditor Rob Sand visited KC Hall in Washington where over 100 people were in attendance on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
“The number one issue that we should be focused on should be making state government address our issues instead of just having to work for politicians, special interest groups, and insiders,” said Sand. “Because once our state government represents us, because once our state government represents us, we begin to address our issues more regularly and more effectively.”

KTVO: Rob Sand brings 100 Town Hall Tour to Fairfield

Democratic candidate for Iowa governor Rob Sand stopped in Fairfield as part of his 100 Town Hall Tour, taking questions from residents about issues ranging from rural health care and public safety to agriculture and infrastructure.
“I want government in Iowa to be serving ordinary Iowans, not special interest groups, not insiders,” Sand said. “And the way we do that is by implementing reforms to make it easier for elected officials to do good and harder for them to do bad.

KCII Radio: Rob Sand Makes Campaign Stop in Washington Monday

Rob Sand made a stop in Washington County as part of his 100 town hall tour across Iowa and his campaign for Governor.
Sand, the current state auditor and a Democrat seeking the role of governor, was at the KC Hall in Washington on Tuesday. Topics discussed at the event included working across party lines, water quality, public education, and Iowa’s cancer rates. There were over 100 people in attendance.
Ahead of the event, Sand shared with KCII News what concerns he’s hearing on the campaign trail, “I think there’s three. Corruption, cancer, and costs. The cancer is certainly tied to water quality which is an issue that I have been passionate about my entire life. I think that’s a big reason why coming out here and taking a lot of questions from the public is an important thing to do. You want people to understand that the person who is asking to represent them is actually willing to hear from them.”

Ottumwa Radio: Rob Sand Brings 100 Town Hall Tour to Fairfield Monday

Iowa gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand made a stop in Fairfield at the Fairfield Public Library to a packed room on Monday, August 10th as part of his annual 100 Town Hall Tour through southern Iowa, spending time with Fairfield-area residents and taking questions on issues ranging from rural public safety and hospital closures to roads and bridges, agriculture, and the state of Iowa’s political system.
“We’re going to be working with the Republican legislature if I win this race,” he said. “And so making sure that we actually are talking about things that we can accomplish and distinguishing those from things that I can do myself.”
Sand said he is not promising perfection. “I am not promising you utopia,” he said. “I am not promising you rainbows and puppy dogs. But maybe puppy dogs.” He said the path forward requires reforming the system of self-governance so it serves ordinary people rather than insiders and special interest groups. “When we make it work for us, it’ll actually begin to address issues,” he said.

Bloomfield Democrat: Rob Sand draws crowd during Bloomfield Town Hall

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand opened his Davis County town hall in front of a standing room only crowd at the Bloomfield Public Library Monday morning.
Sand was adamant that one-party control for an extended period of time is problematic—that both sides need to work together for Iowans not outside interest groups.
When it comes to priorities, if elected, Sand plans to focus on costs, corruption, and cancer.
He smiled at the end of the forum and said, “I’ve been pissing off powerful people in both political parties as your state auditor, and I’d really like to keep doing that as your governor.”