Iowa auditor accuses governor of breaking law with mask PSA

Iowa’s auditor accused Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) of violating the state’s self-promotion law last year, when she appeared in a video that advocated for mask wearing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a 13-page special report released Thursday, Iowa auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, wrote that Reynolds, a Republican, broke state law that prohibits the use of public money for self-promotion when she appeared in the “Step Up, Stop the Spread” media campaign.

Reynolds’s office introduced the campaign in November after she enacted a limited statewide mask mandate in response to COVID-19 cases surging to their highest levels, according to the Des Moines Register.

In a video that aired on Iowa televisions stations, Reynolds was seen in the governor’s office, with her name and title on screen, urging Iowans to embrace mitigation efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus, including mask wearing, social distancing and isolating from others, according to the Des Moines Register.

The video also featured other Iowa officials.

“In performing this investigation, the facts show that the Governor violated Iowa Code Section 68A.405A, which prohibits the use of public moneys for self-promotion,” Sand wrote in the report. 

He added that Reynolds would have known to avoid self-promotion with public cash because “she signed the law herself” in 2018.

Reynolds defended her participation in the campaign, saying it was in line with the law.

“I’m proud of the ‘Step Up, Stop the Spread’ public service announcement,” Reynolds said in a statement. “I felt it was important for me and other leaders to address Iowans during the height of the pandemic. And the law clearly allows it.”

She specifically pointed to the opening clause of the law, which she said includes an exemption for measures taken during a public health disaster emergency.

Reynolds, according to the Des Moines Register, issued a proclamation of disaster emergency in March 2020, when the pandemic was beginning to spread. Some parts of the measure are still in effect.

A press release from her office said “promoting the requirements and recommendations of a disaster proclamation in a public awareness campaign is a clear example of the public-emergency exemption in Iowa’s image-and-likeness statute.”

In a statement responding to Reynolds, Sand said the governor could have ended the self-promotion law through one of the emergency proclamations, but “she did not.”

“Therefore, the law prohibiting statewide elected officials from self-promotion through the use of public moneys applies,” he added.

Sand claims in the report that Reynolds’s office spent more than $500,000 of CARES Act funding for the campaign. Of that capital, Sand said $152,585 was used for paid advertisements on TV, radio and the internet that included the governor’s image, voice and title.