[Vision2020] Ex-Idaho Lawmaker Killed in Crash

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (October 3, 2006) Spokesman Review -

Although I may never have agreed with Helen Chenoweth's politics, she
believed in, and supported, the people of Idaho.  She will be missed.

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Ex-Idaho lawmaker killed in crash 
Chenoweth-Hage a conservative leader

>From Staff and Wire Reports
October 3, 2006

CARSON CITY, Nev. - Helen Chenoweth-Hage, a conservative Republican
firebrand who served three terms as an Idaho congresswoman, was killed
Monday when she was thrown from a vehicle that overturned on an isolated
central Nevada highway.

A daughter, Meg Chenoweth Keenan, said her mother was a passenger in the SUV
that flipped just before noon Monday on state Route 376, the main highway
between her Pine Creek Ranch in Monitor Valley and Tonopah.

The Nevada Highway Patrol said Chenoweth-Hage, 68, was pronounced dead at
the scene. Though other family members were in the car - including the
driver, daughter-in-law Yelena Hage, 24, and Hage's 5-month-old son Bryan
Hage - no one else was seriously injured.

State trooper Rocky Gonzalez said Chenoweth-Hage was holding the baby and
wasn't wearing a seat belt. Nevada law requires both seat belts and baby
seats. He added both Chenoweth-Hage and the baby were thrown from the car
but the child "miraculously" suffered only minor injuries.

Gonzalez said a preliminary investigation indicates driver inattention. He
said the SUV, traveling toward Tonopah, drifted off the road to the right,
swerved back to the left and then flipped as the driver overcorrected.

 
Chenoweth-Hage was killed four months after the death of her husband, Nevada
rancher Wayne Hage, who battled the federal government for decades over
public lands and private property rights and came to epitomize the Sagebrush
Rebellion in the West. Hage had been ill and died in his sleep at age 69.

Chenoweth-Hage was elected to Congress from Idaho in 1994 and served three
two-year terms. The outspoken advocate of smaller government and property
rights chose not to run in 2000.

U.S. Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter, who replaced Chenoweth, said he ran in 2000
only because she chose to retire.

"What a tragedy," Otter said. "Helen was a person, whether in her private
life or in her public service, who was dedicated to principles of limited
government. In every sense of her being, she fought for the maximum
individual liberty - and the minimum in government."

"Helen was the most amazing, gracious person I ever had the privilege to
know," her daughter said in a statement. "She was fearless in life, and I
know she welcomes the opportunity to be in the presence of God her father."

Chenoweth-Hage championed conservative candidates across Idaho, often making
appearances even after her self-imposed tenure in Congress ended. She
stumped for Idaho Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, when he initially ran for the
Idaho House in 1994.

"She was so much a part of Idaho," Hart said. "And for those of us who are
conservatives, she was really a leader among us."

Hart characterized her as a classy and gutsy woman who handled herself with
dignity. "She was so sure of herself and of her belief system. I think it
added to her credibility," he said. 

Idaho Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, knew Chenoweth-Hage from her years
as executive director of the Idaho Republican Party. At the time, Nonini was
the party's Kootenai County chairman. "She stayed active helping local
candidates," Nonini said, even though Chenoweth-Hage supported his opponent
in the 2004 election. "We've lost a great conservative."

Idaho Sen. Skip Brandt, R-Kooskia, got Chenoweth-Hage's endorsement in the
crowded 1st Congressional District primary this spring. She accompanied him
to Washington, D.C., for a fund-raising trip in 2005.

"It was just amazing the admiration and respect she had back there still to
this day," Brandt said, recalling that at one point their taxi was
surrounded by lobbyists and congressional staffers wanting to exchange
business cards and cell phone numbers with the former congresswoman.

"She was apologizing quite a bit because I was supposed to be the focus," he
said.

Chenoweth-Hage made up for it when she cooked a hearty ranch breakfast of
bacon and eggs for Brandt each morning while they stayed at the home of a
former staffer. Brandt said she became a wonderful cook once she left
Congress and moved to Hage's isolated Nevada ranch, where there was no
telephone, no cell service and e-mail only when the generator was fired up.

"She went from the D.C. Beltway and all the amenities to a ranch that she
really loved," he said.

Born in Topeka, Kan., Chenoweth-Hage grew up in Grants Pass, Ore., and
attended Whitworth College in Spokane before moving to the North Idaho
timber town of Orofino, where she worked at Northside Medical Center.

She became a well-known political name in Idaho when she moved to Boise in
the 1970s, leading the state GOP and becoming U.S. Rep. Steven Symms' chief
of staff.

She ran for Congress against incumbent Democrat Larry LaRocco and gained
national attention when she held "endangered salmon bakes," serving canned
salmon and ridiculing the listing of Idaho salmon as an endangered species
during fundraisers.

Chenoweth-Hage also said that salmon aren't endangered but white males are,
complained about government "black helicopters" harassing ranchers and
called for disarming federal resource enforcement agents.

She drew widespread criticism in 1997 for an interview with The
Spokesman-Review in which she suggested that blacks and Hispanics have never
been attracted to North Idaho because of its climate.

"The warm-climate community just hasn't found the colder climate that
attractive," Chenoweth-Hage told the newspaper. She also said she believes
North Idaho has plenty of ethnic diversity: "We have Poles, people from
Scandinavia, people from England, people from Italy."

She also suggested that Hispanics weren't attracted to North Idaho because
"we just don't have that much agricultural crop harvesting up north."

Chenoweth-Hage later apologized for those statements.

She also said she suffered from unjustified media criticism because she was
a woman and because she stood firmly for Western rights, independence and
sovereignty.

During her congressional career, Chenoweth-Hage was the victim of a "salmon
pie" attack while at a field hearing on forest health in Missoula. Randall
Mark of Moscow, Idaho, hit her in the head with a pie made of rotten canned
salmon, forcing the meeting to adjourn for an hour while she cleaned her
hair and jacket.

Afterward, the congresswoman joked, "I would like to say that I find it
amusing that they used salmon. I guess salmon must not be endangered
anymore." The stunt landed Mark in jail for more than two months. He also
got a year of probation.

She married Hage in 1999 in Meridian, Idaho, at a ceremony attended by more
than 1,000 guests. In 2000, Chenoweth-Hage considered a possible bid for
Idaho's lieutenant governor's post, but opted to work for a private property
advocacy group in Boise.

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Helen Chenoweth-Hage: a look back 
1994 - Elected to Congress as part of the Republican Revolution, defeating
incumbent Democrat Larry LaRocco, who had tried to paint Chenoweth as part
of the radical fringe. Her background included activism for Wise Use, an
anti-environmentalist group.

1996 - Announces in a speech that there are no more women's issues for
Congress to tackle. "Those battles were fought a long time ago," she said.
"That's behind us."

1997 - Suggested that blacks and Hispanics have never been attracted to
North Idaho because of its climate. She later apologized.

1998 - A day after launching a television campaign attacking President
Clinton for his extramarital affair, Chenoweth acknowledged that she herself
had a six-year affair with her former business partner, who was married.
Chenoweth, whose staff during the '94 campaign had criticized LaRocco for
lying about an affair, had denied her own relationship when asked about it
in '95. 

1998 - Describing herself as a "dove" on military matters, Chenoweth
criticized then-President Clinton for bombing Iraq the night before
Clinton's impeachment hearings were scheduled to begin.

1999 - Married Wayne Hage, a Nevada rancher and property rights activist who
filed a $28 million lawsuit after a prolonged battle with the U.S. Forest
Service over grazing rights. The couple sent out 11,000 invitations to the
wedding. 

2000 - Issued a 60-page report highly critical of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's work in the Silver Valley. Among its allegations is that
the EPA had no proof of a connection between high lead levels in the soil
and in blood samples taken from the region's children.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Vandalville, Idaho

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Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.

- Author Unknown
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