Sand feels strong heading into the campaign

Rob Sand called on Memorial Day as he drove home from a family weekend at Okoboji to catch up, he said, after having read my column about politicians swimming in money.

Halfway through, he says that this is off the record when it’s just us two, right?

Well, uh, okay, transparency is supposed to be the order of the day in the governor campaign but it was his dime. Whatever you two boys are talking about the whole class should hear. Sand said nothing newsworthy. Safe to report he felt good before the primary about having a ton of cash against a lackluster field of five Republicans. Beyond that, I betray no confidence while concealing nothing.

Looks like he leads a generic Republican in polls. The Polymarket predictions machine last week pegged the odds of Sand winning at 66%. June 2 likely will find him with an opponent, and things will change. Randy Feenstra got Trump’s endorsement.

Sand is not cocky, just confident. The Iowa economy has been in a tailspin and Trump is making it worse by the day. Voters are tired of one-party rule, will be relieved to see Gov. Reynolds leave, and resent that the local public school building had to close. It‘s time for a change, and Sand has good timing.

The 43-year-old state auditor casts himself as an independent forced to wear the Democratic yoke, as a practical matter. The political parties are corrupting, he argues. It is a pragmatic position in a state where Democratic registrations trail Republican by 200,000. He was an assistant attorney general for Democrat Tom Miller.

Democrats gave us Social Security and Medicare, cured the Dust Bowl, delivered crop price supports and insurance, brought us out of the Great Depression, won World War II and made Europe safe for democracy. Republicans once stood firm against slavery and for civil rights. Reagan helped bring an end to the Soviet Union with a hawkish Republican base. Nixon opened trade with China as only a Republican safely could. Parties matter (when they defend democracy). I am willing to entertain alternative electoral constructs once we secure voting rights. Sand will rely on Democratic ardor to knock doors for him. Independents have not built a canvassing machine in Iowa or articulated a policy agenda.

Sand shares common cause with James Talarico of Texas and Graham Platner of Maine, Democrats who position themselves as bucking the Establishment.

He is sufficiently progressive to satisfy the base. Sand leads by attacking education vouchers. He is counting on public school supporters foremost. It distinguishes him from any Republican.

He wants to undo the privatization of Medicaid. It has been awful for rural health care.

He supports big investments in research since Iowa leads the country in cancer. He makes a link between ag chemicals and cancer.

Beyond that, he wants Iowa to be “truer and better.”

True: Iowa has the most polluted surface water in America. True: Even Adam Steen evolved into a staunch water-quality advocate, and he had the endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats and the Family Leader. True: Zach Lahn got a lot of rural support talking about breaking up Big Ag. True: Rob Sand has a water quality agenda on his website that Zippy Duvall of the Farm Bureau could tuck under his pillow to help him sleep at night.

Sand is not afraid to talk about faith just before inviting everyone to sing “America the Beautiful.” The big crowds he attracts like it. What would Jesus do? Advise his boys not to walk on Storm Lake because of a noxious algae bloom the third week in May. He would raise less corn and more Hell, but Jesus never ran for governor in the most ag-intensive place in the world. Sand is shrewd. He is lawyerly. The calculation is that you do not win by running against corn. Let agriculture secretary candidate Chris Jones take on the ethanol/corn/livestock complex.

You have to put faith in the fact that Sand, a Decorah boy, likes to fish and hunt, and his mother is an environmental advocate.

The governor has more effective authority over air and water quality than any official, state or federal, through control of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

There is no doubt in my mind that Rob Sand will be better for clean air and water than any Republican, and especially Feenstra. Not perfect, but better by a long shot. A lot of Sand’s money comes from agbiz, so you can’t claim he is a property-coveting socialist.

He will not demean immigrants. He will not batter you with a Bible. He will try harder to feed the hungry. Truer, as it were, to idealism than fear of others. He is solicitous of Republicans. Pragmatic with walkin’-around money sashays well in Iowa. It’s working. At this point, whatever it takes, dude. Protect us from a new Inquisition.

Art Cullen is the editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in Northwest Iowa, where this column appeared. His latest book, Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World, is available from Ice Cube Press. For more columns and editorials, please consider a subscription to the Times Pilot. Or, if you wish, you can make a tax-deductible gift to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation to support independent community journalism in rural Iowa. Thanks.

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