Paul Sand

Paul Sand was born in Richfield, Minnesota. Sand's career experience includes working as a contractor with Monaco Enterprises, Inc., a computer software engineer, a carpenter and architect, a systems analyst, and an entrepreneur.[1][2]

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Campaign websiteSand's campaign website stated the following:MY PLATFORMMy PoliticsI am opposed to any state policies that are intended to bring more businesses and more people into Idaho. Let's just lift up the businesses and people we already have. If we want to grow Idaho, we should invite counties in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon to join us.I am opposed to any efforts to privatize our public lands. Idaho is not for sale.Get Money Out of PoliticsDonating to political parties and candidates is just a money laundering scheme. They want you to spend your money knowing that third party candidates have no chance of beating the political establishment and their money machine. I am not accepting any donations from individuals or businesses. I have no money of my own, so I will be relying on free press and word of mouth to get my message out.My ProposalIf elected, I want to invert the political system in Idaho and make counties and local government the top layer. County governments are more democratic because your elected representatives are your neighbors. They share your social and economic community. They go to your same stores, churches and schools. Big government urban politicians couldn't care less about our rural communities.A lot of politicians are calling for ending property tax. Property taxes fund your local government services. The state wants to determine how much your community gets and how you can use your land. This would also be an enormous gift to the ultra wealthy, as usual, who have substantial real estate holdings and no means of avoiding the tax.The Mini-State Political LayerThis is key to ending the polarization that is crippling our country. It can be a model for every U. S. state with blue cities and red rural counties. This is a far simpler approach than a national divorce or moving state borders.A Mini-State is an autonomous federation of counties that share a common social and economic demographic. These virtual states would have their own rules and regulations, taxes and budgets. One or more counties can, with 2/3 voter approval, create a mini-state and additional counties can join, with approval of the existing member counties and 2/3 of their own voter's approval. The mini-state host and member counties don't need to be in Idaho or adjacent to other sub-states. A county in Washington or Oregon and declare independence from their state government and join the Idaho state government.The state borders don't change and neither would their addresses. The only thing that moves is their government allianceThis does not require any federal or state constitution changes. State legislatures would need to pass a law authorizing counties to govern themselves and form alliances with other counties. Counties already have taxing authority, so no new legislation would be needed here. Public property ownership is unaffected. Federal property is still federal property, state property is still state property, county property is still county property.An example of an urban mini-state would be the Boise area metropolitan counties. The existing state government services, offices, and workers would simply move from the state level to the mini-state level.Lewiston would be a good rural mini-state host, representing the Palouse region of central Idaho and eastern Washington, being a sea port, and at the intersection of 2 major US highways (US 12 and US 95) serving agriculture, ranching, timber, lumber, mining, trucking industries.Horizontal vs Vertical GrowthThe mini-states can implement policies that attract more people and more businesses to widen their economy or implement policies that lift our existing businesses and people without bringing in Californian or foreign immigrants.The State of IdahoThe existing state government would be the bottom layer in the new political structure. The state government should only be concerned with statewide issues that benefit the entire state and that everyone can agree needs to be done. The only statewide offices should be transportation/highways/road and fuel taxes and the secretary of state. Keeping our roads safe is of utmost importance for Idaho. The overall economic policies of Idaho should be small government, minimal regulations, and support local businesses. The state legislature could work one week per year and get paid $100 per day. The state income tax and sales tax would go away. If all the counties in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon joined Idaho, the population of Idaho would be more than 3.5 million.— Paul Sand's campaign website (April 22, 2026)Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a 73 year-old retired computer software engineer. As a child, electronics and amateur radio were my hobbies. I attended the University of Minnesota School of Architecture and completed three years before dropping out to focus on my computer businesses. I have three grown children and 3 young grandchildren. I grew up in Minnesota and moved west about 30 years ago after my divorce and met my current wife, Sandra, about 23 years ago when I was working in Spokane.

I've started and ran a dozen businesses, including a 501(c)3 non-profit and several stock corporations involved in developing information technology used by local, state, and federal government agencies, and numerous large educational, industrial, and biotech entities. I also designed and built several energy efficient homes for my family, including our unique house in White Bird.

I have actual government experience working directly with top policy makers in nearly every agency of the Minnesota state government. I served on the White Bird City Council from 2007 to 2017 during a period of significant issues facing the city and surrounding community.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Stop the erosion of personal freedom and women's rights in IdahoMake the interests of workers and families higher than the interests of business anad governmentProtect gun rights by ending the causes of gun violence rather than by government regulation

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am running against the influence of money in politics. Workers are struggling to survive while the rich just buy politicians to improve their lives. I will not take your money and I will not take their money and I don't have money. I will not annoy you with advertising, phone banks, robocalls, yard signs, and everything else that money can buy. I will represent the people of Idaho to the best of my ability.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

The Reverend Robert Lovering, who was my childhood neighbor and electronics mentor. He ran a TV repair shop out of his garage and gave me dead TV carcasses to salvage for electronic parts. There was nothing that he couldn't do or build in spite of being confined to a wheelchair from Polio. He built a second floor addition over the garage for his growing family complete with a homemade elevator. He taught me that nothing was impossible and I have lived my life with that belief.

And of course my mother who built the hardware and programmed the software for my mind, with a copy of her mind. I wish I could say anything good about my father.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

The 1961 farewell speech by President Eisenhower, and the speech by Charlie Chaplin at the end of the film "The Great Dictator" in 1940.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

The kind of leadership exhibited by Frank Church, Cecil Andrus and Dwight Eisenhower.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I will absolutely not compromise on my principles of peace, freedom, equality, transparency, and economic and social opportunity for everyone. My decisions are data driven and are always based on logic, rather than on phony biased "science" and manipulated statistics.

What legacy would you like to leave?

At least he tried...

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Hiding under our desks during nuclear attack drills at age 7.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I was a newspaper contract reseller (paper-boy) for 6 years and eventually had a morning route and two evening routes at the same time. You had to buy enough papers and resell them to your customers for a profit, so technically this was a business for 12 year-olds and not a job.

What is your favorite book? Why?

"Anything Worth Doing", by Jo Deurbrouck, a true story of an event that occurred on the Salmon River when I first arrived here in the spring of 1996. It captures my philosophy of life, adventure and death.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Zaphod Beeblebrox

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

"It is a good day to die", by Robbie Robertson & The Red Road Ensemble from the album "Music for The Native Americans"

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Everything and surprisingly nothing. Everything went wrong and still turned out okay. I have no complaints.

A governor is the top executive authority in his or her state. What does that mean do you?

As an executive, the Governor should propose policy but not make policy, except in cases of real and not fabricated emergencies. I will consider any legislation that provides a sensible solution to a real problem.

Governors have many responsibilities, which vary from state to state. Which of those do you personally consider the most important in your state?

As with all elected representatives at all layers, we need to represent and promote the economic interests of our state and our districts for the benefit of all the people, all the time. The government needs to stay out of our personal lives, and any divisive behavior will not be tolerated.

Different states require governors to have different degrees of responsibility for the state budgeting process. If it were your choice, what do you believe is the appropriate degree of gubernatorial involvement with this process in your state?

The governor should have final say and take responsibility for his budget.

In most states, governors have the power to make line-item vetoes. If that is true in your state, what would be your philosophy for how and when to use this power?

Rarely and only if a line-item is unfair or irresponsible.

If the governor's office in your state does not have the line-item veto power, do you believe it should? Why or why not?

Yes, it is the governor's budget. That is why we have an executive branch.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

Cooperative.

What do you love most about your state?

Minimal regulations, clean water, clean electricity, endless recreational opportunities, spectacular scenery, best weather, robust diversified economy, and efficiently run state government operations.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Handling the population influx and capitalizing on the resulting growth, while trying to avoid the pitfalls that accompanies that growth,

Tell us your favorite joke.

My wife lies about her age. She tells everyone she is 84 years old.

Under what circumstances should the governor of your state be able to use emergency powers?

Only in cases of real and not fabricated or political emergencies.

Campaign website

Sand's campaign website stated the following:

SOCIAL ISSUES

Issue 1 - Stop Killing Each Other

All human behaviors and emotions are also found in the animal kingdom. The only thing that differentiates humans from animals is that we can consciously choose to not behave like animals. Our tribes have been attacking and killing each other for a million years. Our willingness to kill each other is proof that we have not evolved beyond the animal level and have not yet achieved humanity. We need to stop all wars and hate now, and learn to coexist and to accept our differences.

Issue 2 - Tribalism

Tribalism includes religion, racism, sexism, ageism, and all the other “ism”s. It is a natural biological feature of all social animal species. We have a biological need to belong to something. We cannot prevent people from being racist, but we can prevent people from acting racist.

Everyone should think that their tribe is the best, but we are all part of multiple tribes and they all overlap to some degree, which puts us all in the same sinking boat. I am a member of the male tribe, senior citizen tribe, Viking tribe, Seahawk tribe, computer nerd tribe, etc.

All tribes have a right to exist and a responsibility to give all other tribes the same rights that your tribe enjoys. Any tribe that interferes with another tribe’s rights will no longer be permitted to exist.

Issue 3 - Make Black Lives Matter

I am not sure we can consider America as free when we have the world's highest prison incarceration rate. We have six times the world's average rate and I am pretty sure we don't have six times the bad people rate. We would need to release 1.75 million prisoners to equal the rest of the world. This is not only blacks, but all people who are disadvantaged by discrimination or lack of opportunity.

As soon as job training programs and mental health services are in place to provide a safe landing, we should release at least one million political prisoners from American prisons. These were otherwise good people who were victims of an unfair economic system that forced them into an unfair criminal justice system. They will all be given a one-time do-over and be provided with restitution in the form of free education, free job training, and a good paying guaranteed job that will allow them to raise a happy, healthy family and fully enjoy the American dream.

Since organized crime was also caused by political malfeasance (prohibition), I would also give them a one-time, now or never, do-over, dismiss any past wrongdoings and let them “clean” their money for a 10% laundry tax and then go legal and stay legal. The laundry tax could also apply to any un-taxed offshore funds being brought home.

By decriminalizing drugs, gambling and prostitution, we can eliminate drug pushers, street gangs, meth labs, drug cartels and their associated violence and can better manage gambling and prostitution operations. Then, law enforcement can focus on catching actual criminals and rapists and no longer need to risk getting shot while performing a routine traffic stop. The slightest hint of pot smell gives the police probable cause to detain, search and shoot you if you appear to resist or flee.

Once decriminalized, the drug problem can come out into the daylight and social stigma can encourage young addicts to get treatment, get job training, and join the rest of society.

We are a nation of stimulant addicts. Just drive by a coffee kiosk any time of the day or night. When I was growing up, my father who worked with numbers all day, had a legal prescription for dextroamphetamine, a.k.a. white crosses or dex and it is now being given to children to treat ADHD.

Any politician that opposes legalizing drugs and yet supports legal and deadly alcohol and highly addictive nicotine is maintaining policies that fund organized crime and should be willing to take full personal responsibility for innocent people being killed by gang violence or by overzealous law enforcement.

Issue 4 - Fair Family Wage

With automation and A.I. the future will have fewer good paying jobs. Businesses should be encouraged to provide workers with family healthcare benefits and income that will fully support a family, with a stay-at-home parent. For most existing responsible businesses already providing fair wages, this will not add anything to their payroll expense.

We also need a guest worker program to bring in workers that are desperately needed but not available with our workforce. Try to find a workforce to assemble cellphones or pick lettuce in this country. It can’t be done. When I was in college, I took a summer job at an electronics company drilling holes in printed circuit boards. After 4 hours, I left the facility to get lunch and never returned. Fortunately, this work is now done by robots.

Issue 5 - Career / Job Training Programs

Worker training is a responsibility of the business and the government. Anyone who wants to learn a new trade or skill should be given a free education as long as they are making progress.

Businesses that need degreed workers should fund the college education for a basket of talented individuals who would be contractually obligated to the company for 5 years after graduation. If they are traded to another employer, the new employer would buy out the remaining contract. If they are released, they become unrestricted free agents and owe nothing for their education.

We need at least one million more men and women construction workers now and in the near future as we build more new homes and fix old infrastructure. I recently tried to hire contractors for some concrete and masonry work and they were booked though next year. When asked why they don't expand, they said it is because they can't find skilled workers and those that are any good are hard to keep.

I propose expanding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and re-open military bases across the country to train workers in all phases of light, medium or heavy construction. After two years of basic training, they will be fully ready and able to start construction work anywhere in the country.

Those that want to stay in the Corps can re-enlist for 4 years and be deployed in this country and around the world wherever basic infrastructure needs to be built or repaired. This program would be best for trainees who need discipline and a structured environment to be successful.

Issue 6 - Public Works Program

Government handouts to people who don't want to work doesn't sit well with people who work hard for their living. This program is only for people who want work and can work. It is not a handout. It is also not a charity.

We should create a safety-net that replaces welfare, disability and unemployment with paying work. If you lose your job on Friday, you can report to work on Monday, online or at your local PWP office, and your salary (with limits) and full benefits continue without interruption.

There would be no restriction on how long you can remain in the PWP. You will get score points for volunteering for assignments and extra points for unpleasant assignments and leadership points for performing supervisory roles. PWP workers will need to be present, online or in person, to be paid for those hours. Online work being performed may be real or simulated and your speed and accuracy will be measured. Our public spaces need a lot of work and you may find yourself cleaning bird-poop off statues or picking up trash, with a good income and good benefits.

Businesses will want to hire new workers from the PWP because workers with high scores are known to be reliable and hardworking. If you leave the PWP for a real job and then return to the PWP, you can resume with your prior score and status.

Government agencies and businesses that need temporary workers will also use the PWP for those jobs. If a government department has work that is not getting done due to budget issues, the PWP will do that work at no cost to the department.

The PWP also acts as job finding service and as the entry point for job training services for workers. PWP workers can continue to receive their salary and benefits as long as they are progressing in a job training program.

Issue 7 - Gun Violence / Second Amendment

We can end gun violence simply by eliminating all of the uses for gun violence. Gun control has never worked. Buying a gun should be no more difficult than buying an electric toothbrush.

Government policies that result in gun violence are being used by the establishment to generate political support from both parties for completely outlawing gun ownership.

The obvious solutions are to provide mental health services to everyone regardless of age or insurance, end the failed war on drugs, and provide economic and social opportunity and an economic safety net so you don't lose everything when you lose your job..

Issue 8 - Abortion

We can end abortion by eliminating the need for abortion and we need to increase the birth rate if we want any kind of future. I am personally opposed to abortion because I have a God-given biological imperative to attempt to reproduce as often as possible.

I also support a woman's God-given right and responsibility to be selective. The creation of a life and the gift of immortality is the greatest gift a woman can give any man. I can never adequately thank the mother of my three children.

I believe that choice is an issue of personal freedom and women's rights. I was raised as a good protestant Christian, sang in the church choir, read the Bible from cover to cover and studied the teachings of Jesus, including those left out of the Bible, and I believe that Jesus never said that women were less than men.

I also believe that any business or organization has the freedom to set any rules for members, employees, or customers, for any reason, as long as they don't try to impose those rules on the freedoms of other people or organizations.

Abortion can be ended simply by eliminating the economic barriers and uncertainty that families face. Then we can end daycare, homelessness, hopelessness, domestic violence and teenage pregnancy.

HEALTHCARE REFORM

Basic Medicare for Workers and Families

Every year, businesses dread the negotiations with their employee benefit providers. To reduce those costs, we need to create a Basic Medicare for Workers and Families program. Businesses can buy this coverage for their “head-of-household” employees at a single fixed rate for all ages and all family sizes. The single fixed rate prevents employer discrimination based on age or family size.

The premiums for B.M.W.F. are likely to be cheaper than the business is paying now for group insurance for just the worker. For actuarial soundness, there will need to be limits on the coverage. Workers and businesses can also optionally purchase commercial insurance supplements to expand the basic coverage or reduce deductibles. People with self-employment income or just “extra” income can also buy B.M.W.F. and supplements for themselves and their families.

Mental Health

We will greatly expand mental healthcare services and make them available to everyone. In addition to drug treatment and suicide prevention, new mental health services will include narcotic drug counseling and prescription service and life-termination counseling and service.

Giving drugs to addicts is far cheaper than incarceration or having them rob convenience stores. You will be able to fill your meth prescription at Walgreens with pharmaceutical grade meth and if you can’t afford your medication, the federal government will pay for it. When young people only see hopelessness for themselves, they turn to the illegal drug culture for economic and social opportunity. The pyramid structure of the drug distribution system requires addicts to become pushers and recruit new addicts. Without the illegal economic aspect, the pyramid collapses.

Old people or anyone else, who is ready to exit, can use the life-termination service and leave their assets and their world to their children or their favorite charity.

Retirement

We will reduce the eligibility age for regular Medicare to age 62. This will allow millions of older workers to retire with healthcare coverage while still healthy and will free-up millions of jobs so that younger workers can move up and entry level workers can move in.

ENVIRONMENT

Don't Recycle Plastic

We’ve been told by paid “scientists” that landfills are bad when they are actually good for the climate. We’re told that recycling paper and plastic Is good when it is actually bad for the climate. And we’re told that cutting down forests is bad when it is actually good for the climate. The truth is, in the 1970s, the plastics industry paid for the ads that vilified landfills and promoted plastic recycling so they would not have to buy new expensive oil.

We are fast approaching a cross-over point where the decreasing cost of clean energy will push down the demand and combustive value of fossilized petroleum, while increasing demand for non-combustive (carbon sequestering) uses such as lubricants, solvents and plastics will push up the value of fossilized petroleum. At this cross-over point, the oil will become too valuable to burn.

This cross-over point is only a few years away and climate change will no longer be the disaster that the climate alarmists are expecting. We can speed up this cross-over point by consuming MORE plastic and NOT recycling any of it. This forces the plastic manufacturers to buy new oil, pushing the non-combustive value even higher thus ending fossilized petroleum combustion and its resulting carbon emissions forever.

But, what about all the plastic floating in the ocean? This is not plastic’s fault; it is our habit of tossing our trash in the wrong places. For every ton of trash floating in the ocean, there is a million tons of trash that didn’t float. I am more concerned about poisoning our seas with heavy metals and “forever” chemicals than with floating plastic. Plastics should be buried in segregated landfills so we can dig it up again in about 1000 years.

Putting plastic back in the ground where it came from is a carbon neutral transaction. Using plastic and plant fiber for permanent applications, such as building houses out of trees, effectively removes 200% of that carbon from the biosphere. The new plant matter that replaces the removed tree consumes carbon at a faster rate than the old growth. The carbon bonds in plastic are quite stable and should remain intact nearly forever if sequestered in a dark place.

By the way, recycling aluminum and other metals is very important because mining and smelting ore is very bad for the environment. Also, the creation and extinction of species is a natural part of God’s design, and we shouldn’t be worried about every little frog, but we probably should worry about bees. We need them.

In reality, the global benefits to humanity of climate change greatly outweigh the costs. Back when this carbon was in the biosphere, dense forests reached the shores of the Arctic Ocean and jungles covered eastern Montana and Wyoming, and food was so abundant that animals grew to be the size of houses. All the excess carbon emissions we generate now will be consumed by increased biomass production.

If you simply look at the top of a globe, you will see that most of the planet’s land mass is north of 45 degrees latitude. Our real national security threat is that Russia and Canada will become the world’s major food suppliers and global economic powers and billions of refugees will be moving north.

Save the Dams

Salmon are not native to the Columbia River system. Salmon evolved about 20 million years ago during a period of a few million years of a very warm, ice-cap free, climate that hadn’t been that warm for the previous 20 million years and hasn’t been that warm for the 20 million years since then.

For the next 15 million years the salmon survived somewhere else just fine as the ice caps returned but the climate was still much warmer than anything we’ve seen in the last 5 million years. During that entire period the Columbia Basin would have been far too hot and dry for any salmon to survive.

As the earth continued to cool, eventually the natural solar radiation input cycles resulting from planetary orbit cycles became the primary influence on our climate. For at least the last million years there has been at least ten 100,000-year climate cycles with a glaciation (ice age) period that lasts about 80,000 years and an inter-glacial period that