Iowa Lt. Gov. Chris Cournoyer: Rob Sand has ‘politicized the position’ of state auditor

URBANDALE — Republican Iowa Lt. Gov. Chris Cournoyer said a key reason she decided to run for state auditor in next year's election was that she believes current Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand has "politicized the position."

Speaking at a Westside Conservative Club meeting Wednesday morning at the Machine Shed restaurant in Urbandale, Cournoyer explained her frustration with Sand during his time serving as state auditor.

“He (Sand) goes around the state and takes selfies of himself eating breakfast pizza, and he's bashing some of the policies that have been implemented by the governor and the Republican-led Legislature,” Cournoyer said. “You can't bash something and be negative against it and then make me think that you're going to have a fair, unbiased audit when you're auditing the system.”

Cournoyer is one of many Iowa elected officials who launched a campaign for a different office following Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ announcement in April that she won’t run for another term, setting off a political domino effect in the state that was furthered when U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst announced in early September that she too would not seek re-election.

Reynolds appointed Cournoyer to the position in December after former Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg resigned to serve as president and CEO of the Iowa Bankers Association.

Sand, Iowa’s only statewide elected Democrat, announced his run for governor roughly a month after Reynolds’ announcement. He was elected state auditor in 2018 and won re-election in 2022.

Cournoyer said Sand politicized the state auditor’s office by wanting to audit the state’s Education Savings Accounts program, which uses public funds to help families pay for private school.

Sand has argued that the program should be audited because public money spent on ESAs that private schools receive is not subject to the same auditing standards as public school districts.

“It should not be a partisan office,” Cournoyer said. “It should be someone that goes out and fights for the taxpayer and as a taxpayer watchdog, regardless of whether it's Republican or Democrat, it should be holding people accountable, who are handling taxpayer dollars, and making sure that those bad actors are accountable.”

Emma O'Brien, Sand’s gubernatorial campaign communications director, said Republican lawmakers, not Sand, politicized the auditor’s office by passing a 2023 law that placed limits on what personal information the state auditor could demand during an audit.

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“Rob has always worked across the aisle, promoting a Republican and independent to the highest positions in the Auditor’s Office to work together to uncover a record amount of misspent money in his first term because for Rob, it’s not about politics, but about protecting Iowa taxpayers,” O'Brien said in a statement to the Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau.

Running for auditor

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When she got the call from Reynolds’ office to interview for the open lieutenant governor position in the fall of 2024, Cournoyer said she was surprised.

“It really was very unexpected to me, kind of came out of nowhere,” she said. “I really admire Governor Reynolds, and it was just such an honor to be asked.”

Cournoyer was about four months into her role as lieutenant governor when Reynolds announced she was not running for re-election. The move was not what Cournoyer was expecting when she accepted the position, she said.

“(Reynolds not running) was as much of a surprise to me as it was to most of you,” Cournoyer told attendees. “I really respect her decision, but it was something that was a change of plans for me, certainly, and I thought very long and hard about what does that look like.”

Prior to joining the governor’s office, Cournoyer, of LeClaire, represented Iowa Senate District 35, which covers Clinton County as well as slices of northern Scott and southwestern Jackson counties. She joined the state Senate in 2019 after flipping a seat held by then-senator and current Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart.

Cournoyer has worked as a website designer, a substitute teacher and as a reserve deputy for the Scott County Sheriff’s Office. In the Senate, she served as chair of the Senate Technology Committee and vice chair of the State Government Committee and an assistant majority leader.

If elected state auditor, Cournoyer said she would like to further integrate technology into the auditor’s office, find ways to support small towns and rural communities to implement best practices and accounting principles, and audit the auditor’s office.

Republican Iowa County Supervisor Abigail Maas is the only other candidate currently running for Iowa state auditor.