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BRAINERD, Minn.-Long-term stewardship-especially in terms of environmental issues-shapes much of Ray "Skip" Sandman's platform, which also places a high emphasis on the issue of health care, addressing the student loan debt crisis, economic revitalization and his opposition to the influx of money in politics and corporate personhood.

The Independence Party candidate for District 8 and newly retired member of the Duluth community, Sandman said he is always thinking of things in terms of generations-seven, in fact-as a result of his upbringing.

A third-party candidate, Sandman is vocally critical of Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Crosby, who he said "lies" to his constituents regarding the issue of PolyMet mining. At different turns during an interview with Forum News Service, he gave harsh critiques of both the Republican and Democratic-Farm-Labor candidates-all of whom, he said, are largely controlled by the big money interest of corporations.

"Money basically dictates who's going to win, because the amount of money a corporation can donate," Sandman said. "The corporations aren't dumb-they'll have a GOP candidate, they'll have a Democratic candidate, but they're feeding both ends. Either way they win."

As such, Sandman noted, there's increasing dissatisfaction and distrust with the political process-sentiments that manifest themselves in a lack of voter engagement for each election cycle.

Even with the best of intentions, Sandman said, many issues in District 8 are not being properly addressed because politicians gravitate toward short-term fixes and not long-term, sometimes preemptive solutions for coming generations. The abuse of local environmental resources stands front and center in this regard, Sandman said.

"The way we are polluting our environment is very dangerous. We're taught from my culture, because I'm Anishinaabe, that we're looking seven generations ahead," said Sandman, who cited prior initiatives by companies like PolyMet Mining in British Columbia, Nestle and the Enbridge oil pipelines as evidence of corporate infringement on environmental rights. "What happens when we can't drink the water in the ground, but can only buy (bottled water) for five bucks? We take stewardship of the land, but if we don't take care of the land, the land ain't gonna take care of us in the long run. Someone has to step forward and say enough is enough."

Born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1953, Sandman said he moved around frequently as a child until his family settled on the Fond du Lac Reservation in the town of Brookston, where Sandman graduated from Albrook High ÍáÍáÂþ»­.

His resume includes two tours of duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Navy, 25 years as a corrections officer at Northeast Regional Corrections Center in Saginaw, Minn., and 12 years as a spiritual adviser, traditional healer and culture director.

Sandman previously ran for the district as a candidate for the Green Party in 2014, when he was one of the highest vote-garnering Green Party candidates in the nation. He now returns to the campaign trail as a candidate for the District 8 Independence Party of Minnesota.

Sandman has been married to his wife, Babette, for 29 years and they have six adult children and 16 grandchildren. The Sandmans also volunteered as foster parents in prior years.

It is the concept of stewardship-as well as the willingness to stand up for the disenfranchised and disillusioned in American politics-that drives him, Sandman said.

Assessment of Nolan

"I don't want to speak bad of him, but I don't like the way he lies to people," Sandman said of the Crosby-based politician he would succeed if elected to office. "In fact, that's partially why I first decided to run in 2014."

At multiple points in the interview, Sandman expressed his opposition to what he deemed Nolan's disingenuous support of PolyMet Mining-a position, he said, that Nolan formerly opposed, before reversing his position and backing the company's initiatives in northern Minnesota.

It was a point of contention within the DFL and within Nolan's voter base during the course of Nolan's three terms in office and one reason there's been a sense of disenfranchisement among the DFL voter base, Sandman said.

Representing mining country

Mining is an umbrella term referring to different industries that vary in terms of their economic value and environmental impact, Sandman said-while one form of mining may be beneficial, the other constitutes a different set of methods and operations and, as a result, a different set of potential outcomes.

He noted he is in favor of taconite (iron-ore) mining, while he vehemently opposes initiatives for copper-nickel mining (or sulfide operations in general) because of the threat it poses to the numerous water systems in the state.

Sandman characterized pushes for these initiatives as short-sighted and, in many cases, willfully disingenuous and based on outdated science. PolyMet Mining, which is slated to be authorized in the coming weeks, is categorically "unsafe," he added.

"Copper-nickel (mining) is a whole different animal," Sandman said. "Nowhere in the world has it proven safe in water-rich environments. Even Polymet and Glencore's own scientists say that when it fails... at 500 years you'll still have pollution in the watershed."

Sandman noted in District 8, recreational tourism is an enormous economic driver. Beyond the health of residents in the district and long-term stewardship concerns, Sandman questioned the logic in what he sees as supporting initiatives threatening the viability of the tourism industry.

In terms of job growth associated with mining, Sandman said it's a raw deal-reports on the amount of new jobs to be created have fluctuated and declined on a monthly basis. He estimates the PolyMet mining initiative will create all of 50-60 temporary jobs.

"When it's all said and done, they get the profit, we get the clean up," Sandman said, who added companies like PolyMet are typically unwilling to put up any collateral or insurance-based fund in the case of mining safeguard failures.

Alongside mining, Sandman identified about 278 miles of oil pipelines-particularly Enbridge lines 3 and 5-as existential threats to the delicate water systems that characterize much of District 8. He noted removing these pipelines would also represent a job generator, though companies like Enbridge are reluctant to fund removal, which leaves union-based jobs out of the mix.

Health care in District 8

Sandman said he is a proponent of universal health care-citing it as a universal right and an issue in which the prices of goods and services are artificially inflated by pharmaceutical companies. He's against a pure free-market system of health care, though Sandman also offered criticism for Obamacare, which he characterized as an overwhelming burden for Minnesota's aging populations.

"You follow Obama's plan and it was supposed to be affordable? It's not affordable," Sandman said. "If you're stuck on, say Social Security, you get $1,400 (per month) from Social Security. You want to have your health care, what you are going to pay? A very significant chunk. So what you are you going to live on until next month? You're paying $800, you've got to live on $600, or you're paying $1,000 and you've got to live on $400."

He said the current system needs to be dismantled, but only when a more effective successor is in place.

Sandman lambasted the idea universal health care is untenable, noting three national banks-Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, he said -have been paid trillions in bailouts over 15 years, while the annual total health care cost in the United States for the nation is about $3.5 trillion.

"So where are the priorities?" Sandman said. "If they shifted that money they give to the banks, they could do health care, they could do free education. ... If universal health care was such a failure in Canada, why haven't they repealed it?"

The gun control debate after Parkland

Sandman noted he is in favor of the Second Amendment and the rights of Americans to use firearms in a number of practical and recreational capacities-though, he noted, there should be some limitations.

He identified the now-defunct 1994 assault weapons ban (or the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Act, itself a clause of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) as an area of legislation he would look to resurrect if he were elected to office.

"It particularly outlaws assault weapons, it talks about bump stocks, it talks about magazine size, machine pistols," Sandman said. "I can understand someone's desire to shoot one of those things, but it shouldn't be able to be sold to a 17-year-old, mentally unstable and young, as it happened in Parkland, Fla. It should not."

Sandman also said there needs to be a closure of loopholes at gun shows, as well as "proper" waiting periods while purchasing firearms. Creating a system ensuring gun users are trained, mentally and physically evaluated, as well as registered, would be optimal, he said. Sandman also said he would advocate for a buy-back program, much as they implemented in Australia in the 1990s.

Spurring economic growth

Mining and retail-particularly large box stores and malls-while traditionally stronger points of employment in District 8, may not be as viable in coming years, Sandman said.

Beyond that, enticing businesses and jobs in the face of automation and outsourcing, these issues present a challenge. Sandman said he would also be in favor of pushing for a $15 minimum wage to spur economic growth by giving people more disposable income to buy products.

Keeping the money in District 8, or in particular areas, is key, Sandman said. As such, he said he is in favor of President Donald Trump's trade tariffs-citing it as an example of short-term pain for long-term gain, which may force more corporations to buy American products, made by American labor with American resources.

Sandman said he would also be in favor of city-backed initiatives to build and run housing-particularly for low-income and/or entry level workers.

The opioid epidemic

Sandman took aim at what he deems one of the most prominent drivers of opiate abuse-the sources and catalysts that are, at face value, perfectly legal.

"Three out of 5 people hooked on heroin start out on pharmaceuticals," Sandman said. "We really need to take a look at that profession and the doctors who gave them out freely like they used to."

Sandman also said there needed to be a stronger, more comprehensive pushback against the dealers and suppliers of opioids in the state of Minnesota.

"They talk about the War on Drugs-they need to get active with it: prosecution for the hard-time pushers, the dealers and the pushers," Sandman said. "There's so many ways to get things into this country is unbelievable. It's enhanced enforcement, that's one way."

Student debt

In 2010, student loan debt surpassed credit card debt as the largest form of individual debt in the United States. While this may inhibit economic mobility and opportunities for young Americans in an individual sense, it also poses a threat to the long-term health of the economy. With more money delegated to paying off loans and less disposable income, commerce may suffer.

Sandman said he is in favor of government-supplemented post-secondary education for students going into the system, as well as comprehensive debt-forgiveness program for those who have already graduated.

"Wouldn't you want not to worry about being in debt as soon as you come out (of post-secondary education)?" Sandman said. "Why can't the United States join the other industrialized nations across the world by offering this to their citizenship, to their kids? We're bankrupting them before they even get a job. We have the ability to do that."