State Auditor Rob Sand, running for Iowa governor, talks economic development at Cedar Falls RAGBRAI stop

CEDAR FALLS — State Auditor and gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand got off to a rough start on his first RAGBRAI, with three flat tires within seven miles.

Sand said the ride from Iowa Falls was “wonderful, wasn’t too hot, wasn’t too sunny and it was short.”

But a shard of glass in his tires set his team back as they tried to fix his flat.

Sand was invited for a leg of the ride by Team Spare Tire out of the Iowa City/Coralville area. Josh Schamberger, who invited Sand, said he was connected by a friend involved in the Democratic Party in Johnson County who said Sand always wanted to participate.

“That is a little bit like a badge of honor for RAGBRAI. If you haven’t had a flat, you can’t call yourself a RAGBRAI rider,” Schamberger said. “So he got that knocked out early and he was ready to roll. And he’s actually a pretty dang strong rider. I had to reel him in a couple times.”

Once the team reached Cedar Falls, Sand met with Cedar Falls Mayor Danny Laudick for a short tour of downtown.

  Buy Photo

“We’ve been talking with folks at economic development about the work they’ve been doing trying to bring back some of the areas in downtown that have been tougher spots over the years,” Sand said. “I think that’s pretty important work. Economic development is something I think we need to be focused more on. Our state’s 49th right now in the country for economic growth and 48th for personal income growth.”

Laudick said along with showing off the city, he took the meeting as a chance to sell the community and strengthen bonds with other public officials.

“(I’ll take) any chance I can have to continue to work with our state legislators and elected officials on what’s important for our community and the tools that help us develop locally,” he said. “It was a good opportunity to spend some time investing in that relationship.”

As the two talked, they were interrupted by supporters wanting to shake hands and take selfies with Sand.

“People have said, ‘Thanks for the work that your office has been doing in holding people accountable for misspending tax dollars’,” Sand said. “... I think they look around and they see state government is really focused on a small group of people. They’re not trying to serve everybody anymore, and they don’t want that.”