[Vision2020] Ex-Idaho Lawmaker Killed in Crash

[Dick Sherwin]

Amen!

I knew Helen quite well and have traveled with her, helped write legislation
she, along with Senator Craig, had introduce, lobbied in both the House and
Senate Chambers in DC on legislative matters for her.

She will always be a very fine lady in my eyes.  Someone who always did what
she felt in her heart was the right thing, without compromising her vote for
political favor.  She was always a Christian, both at heart and in her
actions.

I will miss her deeply.  May Idaho once again be blessed with a
representative as gracious, honest and hard working as Helen.

God bless her and her family.

Dick S.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 6:53 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Ex-Idaho Lawmaker Killed in Crash


> >From today's (October 3, 2006) Spokesman Review -
>
> Although I may never have agreed with Helen Chenoweth's politics, she
> believe 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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