(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand held a reception in his statehouse office, Thursday, to officially mark the start of his second term.  “When I started this job four years ago, I had a pretty simple idea of what it was that I wanted to do,” Sand said. “Number one: I wanted to match the passion that I had seen from auditor office employees in my time as assistant attorney general.” Sand spent seven years as the lead state prosecutor on public corruption cases. Sand says in the past four years, the audits and special investigations his office conducted have uncovered a record amount of misspent tax dollars.

“Those dollars must be respected if we are going to maintain trust for the mission of self-governance under our constitution,” Sand said. Sand, who finished ahead of Republican Todd Halbur by fewer than three-thousand votes, was the only Democrat to win a statewide race in November. Sand acknowledged three Republicans in yesterday’s (Thursday’s) audience — State Treasurer Roby Smith, Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig and Attorney General Brena Bird.

“Just because we don’t agree on everything doesn’t mean we don’t come at this interested in serving all the people in the state Iowa and I’m looking forward to working with all of you, so thank you all for being here very much,” Sand said. Sand’s current term started January 1st. He publicly recited his oath of office at the start of Thursday’s event. Naig and Secretary of State Paul Pate will hold similar ceremonies in the statehouse rotunda this (Friday) afternoon.