Meet Todd Halbur & Rob Sand, running for Iowa state auditor in the 2022 election midterms

Two candidates are competing to represent Iowa as state auditor, acting as the taxpayer's watchdog by providing audits of the financial operations of Iowa's state and local governments.

Incumbent Democrat Rob Sand is running against Republican Todd Halbur, a small business owner and licensed Realtor.

To help voters, the Des Moines Register sent questions to all federal, statewide and Des Moines area legislative candidates running for political office this year. Their answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

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Early voting begins Oct. 19 for the Nov. 8 election.

Who is Todd Halbur?

Age: 55

Party: Republican

Where did you grow up? Carroll

Current town of residence: Clive

Education: Bachelor's degree in business, University of Iowa

Occupation: Small business owner of a school supply distribution company and licensed Realtor

Political experience and civic activities: From 2008-13 my wife and I founded and operated a nonprofit, Teacher Tools 4 Tomorrow, that provided teachers in lower-income schools throughout Iowa with classroom supplies. Several volunteer hours at school activities, school sports and church activities.

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Who is Rob Sand?

Age: 40

Party: Democrat

Where did you grow up? Decorah

Current town of residence: Des Moines

Education: Decorah High School, Brown University, University of Iowa Law School

Occupation: State auditor

Political experience and civic activities: Iowa Auditor since January 2019

What do you see as the primary role of the state auditor’s office? How would you help it achieve that mission?

Halbur: Our government does not have any money. It just has all our money that it collects and spends. The primary role of the auditor’s office is to make sure our government is accountable to the taxpayers of Iowa. Our government needs to be accountable to taxpayers on what it collects and spends according to the code of law. I believe Iowa needs an auditor with the financial background and qualifications that I have as a prior banker and CFO of a State of Iowa Agency.

Sand: The state auditor is the taxpayer’s watchdog. I ran in 2018 to “wake up the watchdog," and we’ve done that. In my first term, we identified more than $25 million in misspent funds, a record. We created a government efficiency program, Public Innovations & Efficiencies (PIE), that saves so much taxpayer money the state of Mississippi copied it already. In my second term, I would continue and expand our aggressive approach, find ways to make bank accounts with public dollars more readily visible and continue advocating for no more mere probation for those who steal tax dollars.

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How would you navigate the state auditor’s relationship with the Legislature and the governor’s office?

Halbur: I would work closely with the Legislature and governor’s office to ensure that the laws they pass and put into code are enforced according to the rule of law. I would ensure our government is fiscally responsible with our tax dollars according to the state and federal laws, rules and regulations.

Sand: I’ve called new legislators from both parties after their election wins to make sure they have my contact information and have reached out to the governor’s office on numerous occasions. We will continue to follow our office’s standard procedures for advance notice before reports are issued. I will continue to recommend ideas to the Legislature to save and protect tax dollars. But I will always put my job duty of investigating and informing the public of waste, fraud and abuse ahead of those relationships, because I’m here to serve the public, not the insiders.

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What policies would you put in place to ensure the auditor’s work is transparent and accessible to the public?

Halbur: 1. Save taxpayer money by eliminating fraud, waste and abuse.

2. Cities with a population of less than 2,000 people and budgets under $1 million dollars for example are only audited every eight years. We need to increase these exams to every 2 years at least to ensure better government accountability to all taxpayers of Iowa in our small cities.

3. Make and save money for the taxpayers by streamlining and creating efficiencies in government. For example, the state of Iowa needs to get out of the taxpayer-funded monopoly booze business. The state of Iowa liquor wholesale business needs to be put into the hands of private distributors like all the private beer wholesalers in Iowa.

Sand: I hold Transparency Tuesdays at 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays on Facebook Live where people can ask questions of me. We will continue to demand transparency from state government as well. For example, we took the University of Iowa to the Supreme Court and won, to force it to turn over documents. What I will never do is violate our office’s legal confidentiality requirements or cave under the weight of political requests or even lawsuits trying to chip away, in any way, at our obligation to protect whistleblowers. I have rejected such requests from both Republican and Democratic entities.

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The auditor’s office is described as the 'taxpayer’s watchdog.' What would be your priorities to protect taxpayers?

Halbur: I have already been a taxpayer watchdog for all Iowans. I uncovered illegal business activity at the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division while being their CFO. Over the last 10-plus years the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division has collected from Iowans more than $50 million dollars in illegal excess profits from what is allowed by state law. My priority to protect Iowa taxpayers from this continued illegal business activity would be to have a full third-party independent special investigation audit of the agency.

Sand: 1. Continue our aggressive approach to identify misspent funds. I hired law enforcement officers and have brought my background as Iowa’s main public corruption prosecutor to our work. A northeast Iowa Republican told me he’s never seen bureaucrats more nervous about what the state auditor thinks. Good.

2. Grow the PIE program. This efficiency program saw a 55% increase in participation. I want to continue to collect and spread ideas from Iowans that save taxpayer dollars.

3. Focus on truth, not partisanship, by continuing to defend the opposite party and criticize my own when appropriate, including outside my job duties.

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How would you ensure the auditor’s office would pursue accountability without regard to partisan affiliation?

Halbur: The office is called the taxpayer watchdog, but I want to be a voice for all taxpayers, not just a watchdog for a certain political office. I don’t view it as a political office. I see it as a place of destination for a qualified financial candidate to do the auditing job who has a financial agenda, not a political agenda. As a political outsider, I will be a fresh voice with common sense ideas for 21st-century finance and a fighter for all Iowa taxpayers.

Sand: I appointed a Republican, an independent and a Democrat to my senior leadership team. I’ve repeatedly promoted people in the office who made campaign contributions to my opponent in 2018, while this year informing staff they are not allowed to contribute to me. Our obligation is to truth, integrity and accountability. As a result, we have criticized the governor, but we’ve also defended her — like our audit of COVID-19 data. This balance assures Iowans we work for them, no matter who they are and no matter who they complain about.

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This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Meet Iowa auditor candidates running in midterm elections 2022