Former Idaho congresswoman Helen Chenoweth dies in car accident

Former U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage died Monday in a car crash, her daughter said. Chenoweth-Hage, a Republican who was elected to Congress from Idaho in 1994 and served through 2000, was 68. Her daughter, Meg Chenoweth Keenan, said Chenoweth-Hage was a passenger in the Monday morning crash near Tonopah, Nev. No one else was seriously injured in the one-car crash, she said. Chenoweth had been married since 1999 to Wayne Hage, a Nevada rancher who came to epitomize Nevada’s Sagebrush Rebellion as he battled for decades with the federal government over public lands and private property rights. He died in June at age 69. Born in Topeka, Kan., Chenoweth-Hage grew up in Grants Pass, Ore. and attended Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., before moving to the northern Idaho timber town of Orofino, where she worked at Northside Medical Center. She became a well-known political name in the state when she moved to Boise in the 1970s, serving as the executive director of the Idaho Republican Party 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. An advocate of smaller government and property rights, Chenoweth-Hage won the race and served a self-imposed three-term limit as a U.S. representative.

UPDATE

The Nevada Highway Patrol said Chenoweth-Hage 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. 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" had only minor injuries.