Iowa Gov.-elect Sand adds current, recently former Republicans to staff
DES MOINES — One current Republican and another former-Republican-turned independent have joined Iowa Gov.-elect Rob Sand’s leadership team as he continues the work of establishing his administration. Sand announced Monday that his chief of staff will be Abe Rakov, whose political experience includes leading advocacy groups End Citizens United and Let America Vote. Sand, the Democratic state auditor, was elected Iowa governor during last week’s midterm elections. He will be sworn in as the state’s 44th governor on Jan. 12. Sand announced his latest staff hires and took questions from reporters Monday in the Iowa Capitol rotunda. “I want to have people around who think differently than me,” Sand said during the press conference. “I said it in the campaign, and I meant it every time I said it: The best decisions that you make are the ones where you listen to people that you think you disagree with. … “I know it’s uncommon, but to me that’s the way it ought to be done. That’s the way I did it before, and I want to keep doing it that way.” The new members of what Sand calls his “tripartisan” transition team are Mike Mahaffey, a current Republican and former
