[Vision2020] Ex-Idaho Lawmaker Killed in Crash

[J Ford]

Donnae ya think it mighty odd that one of the strictest proponents for 
seat-belts in Idaho Law is killed because she not only was not wearing a 
seat-belt, but holding her grandchild?

This is a shame and I think it should really wake some people up - 
seat-belts save lives!

I grieve for her family.  She was a nice person and really did have Idaho 
people as her first priority.  I have several letters from her that I will 
treasure, made all the more sweet by her early passing.  Her daughter must 
be devistated.



J  :]





>From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
>To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: [Vision2020] Ex-Idaho Lawmaker Killed in Crash
>Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2006 06:55:24 -0700
>
> >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.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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.
>
>-------
>
>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.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
>Tom Hansen
>Vandalville, Idaho
>
>***********************************
>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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