Clifford Hansen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clifford Peter Hansen (born October 16, 1912) is a retired Republican politician from the American state of Wyoming. He served as both governor (1963-1967) and U.S. senator (1967-1978). Earlier, he was the president of the board of trustees of his alma mater, the University of Wyoming at Laramie (Albany County), his state's only four-year institution of higher learning. He was also a county commissioner in Jackson, the seat of Teton County.
Contents |
[edit] Early years and education
Hansen was born in Zenith (now Teton County but then Lincoln County), a settlement so small that it is no longer listed on Wyoming road maps, to Peter Hansen and the former Sylvia Wood. The senior Hansens were ranchers originally from Idaho: Peter, of Danish extraction, came from Soda Springs, and Sylvia, of English descent, was born in Blackfoot. Peter Hansen, who had some college training, was a "practical" engineer who did surveying and ditch work on ranch lands.
Clifford Hansen grew up in Jackson, a resort community located in the northwestern part of the state west of the Grand Teton National Park. There he attended public schools. In the Menors Cabin, a small museum near the south entrance to Grand Teton National Park and adjacent to the Chapel of the Transfiguration, is a picture of young Cliff Hansen and his mother, which was taken in the early 1920s. The photograph is posted under the cattle exhibit and is meant to demonstrate the hardiness of early Wyoming pioneers.
Hansen obtained his bachelor's degree in agriculture from UW in 1934. He was a UW trustee from 1946 to 1966 and was the trustee board president from 1955 until 1966, when he was elected governor. From 1943-1951, he was a Teton county commissioner. He opposed enlarging park lands in Wyoming at the expense of ranchers, who would lose revenue from hunting and guiding if private holdings came under government ownership. Hansen, a cattle rancher, was active in several agricultural and cattlemen's associations.
[edit] The governorship
Hansen won the governorship in the 1962 mid-term elections by 10,000 votes. He unseated the Democrat Jack R. Gage, who had served fewer than two years. First, Hansen won the GOP primary over two opponents with 57 percent of the ballots. Gage defeated William Jack to secure the Democratic nomination, 55.5-44.5 percent. In the general election, Hansen polled 64,970 votes (54.5 percent) to Gage's 54,298 (45.5 percent). Hansen's governorship was characterized by efforts to expand highways and reservoirs throughout Wyoming.
As his gubernatorial term wound down, Hansen decided to run for the U.S. Senate seat which was being vacated by the retiring Republican Milward L. Simpson of Cody in Park County who was also a former Wyoming governor. Hansen said that he believed he could assist the state more from Washington, D.C., than in the state capital in Cheyenne (Laramie County). He won that election with just under 52 percent of the vote. In a fairly Republican year nationally, he defeated popular Congressman at-large Teno Roncalio, a Democrat of Italian extraction. Hansen received 63,548 votes (51.8 percent) to Roncalio's 59,141 (48.2 percent).
[edit] Hansen's Senate years, 1967-1978
In 1972, Hansen was reelected to the Senate over Democrat Michael Vinich: 101,314 votes (71.3 percent) to 40,753 (28.7 percent). Twenty-six years later, Vinich's son, John P. Vinich, was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for governor against Republican Governor James "Jim" Geringer. Hansen's 1972 raw vote was the first to surpass 100,000 in Wyoming history. Since that time, as of 2002, five other winning Senate candidates in the state have received even more than 100,000 votes. Hansen's Senate reelection marked the last time that his name appeared on a ballot. On the same day, Richard M. Nixon defeated Democrat George S. McGovern of South Dakota to attain his second term in the White House.
Senator Hansen was known for social and fiscal conservativism. He was one of the eight senators who in 1972 voted against sending the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the states for their consideration. In 1976, Hansen supported the renomination and reelection of President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., who won Wyoming's three electoral votes. His backing of Ford was consistent with the stand of other Republican senators that year; only two, Paul Laxalt of Nevada and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, endorsed Ford's rival for the nomination, Ronald W. Reagan of California. Hansen retired from the Senate in 1978, when he declined to run for a third term. He moved back to Jackson and chaired several financial and civic associations. He supported the Republican presidential nominees in all elections thereafter.
In the Senate, Hansen sat beside his friend, Barry M. Goldwater, the Arizona Republican who lost the 1964 presidential election to Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. In a 2006 interview, Hansen fondly recalled one of Goldwater's jokes: Goldwater goes into a California country club that he finds excluses Jews. The man in charge tells him that he is sorry but Jews cannot play in the club. Goldwater says, "I'm only half Jewish. Can I still play nine holes?"
Hansen served on the Senate Finance Committee under chairman Russell B. Long (1918-2003) of Louisiana, son of the legendary Huey Pierce Long, Jr. Hansen, thereafter as ranking member of the committee, said that Long was a "fair" chairman and one of "my dearest friends." He said that Long listened to the problems of Wyoming farmers and ranchers though he represented a state some two thousand miles to the south. Hansen teamed with Long to make sure that the mineral oil fees on federal lands in Wyoming would go to the state government in Cheyenne, rather than to the U.S. treasury.
Hansen said one of his most important achievements in the Senate was the passage of amendments to the Surface Mining Act which prevent mining companies from confiscating the wealth from private lands by means of following an oil bed onto adjacent properties. Farmers and ranchers as a whole in Wyoming, he said, do not object to mining but want compensation if minerals are found on their lands. Hansen said that the amendments have proved important over time because of the large coal industry now rooted in his state.
In the first decade of his Senate service, Hansen's Wyoming colleague was Democrat Gale W. McGee, a former UW history professor who was first elected in the national Democratic sweep of 1958. McGee often cancelled out Hansen's more conservative votes. In 1976, however, McGee was upset by the Republican nominee Malcolm Wallop, a New York City-born rancher and businessman from Sheridan (also Sheridan County), who in the following two years as Hansen's colleague voted mostly in line with Hansen, who had hence become Wyoming's senior senator.
Hansen resigned his Senate seat on December 31, 1978, three days before the expiration of his term to give a slight seniority edge to his moderate Republican successor Alan Kooi Simpson of Cody. Alan Simpson, a son of the conservative Milward Simpson, Hansen's Senate predecessor, would later become the Republican Senate whip.
[edit] The Hansen family
Hansen is married to the former Martha Close (born June 5, 1914), and they are the parents of a son, Peter Arthur Hansen (born 1936). Their only daughter, Mary Hansen Mead (1935 - 1996), was the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1990 against the popular Democratic Governor Michael John Sullivan of Douglas in Converse County. Sullivan defeated Mrs. Mead, 104,638 votes (65.4 percent) to her 55,471 ballots (34.6 percent). In the general election, Mrs. Mead polled only 4,311 more votes than she had in her closed primary. Hence, she was unable to reach beyond her base of support within the GOP.
Thereafter, Mrs. Mead, who was considered an expert horsewoman, was killed in an accident while working cattle in Grand Teton Park on June 21, 1996. She was thrown by her horse, which then collapsed upon he, her father explained. Mary Mead was married to Peter Mead, who coincidentally partly bears the same name as her father and grandfather. She lived on the Mead Ranch, officially the "Lower Bar BC", which prior to its sale -- for more than $100 million -- was one of the largest pastoral private pieces in Teton County. The Hansens and Meads were particularly known for conservation and stewardship activities on their properties.
Mary Mead was cremated; her remains are in a crypt in St. John's Episcopal Church in Jackson. Clifford and Martha Hansen, on their deaths, will also be cremated, and their remains will rest alongside their beloved Mary. Hansen said in 2006 that he and his wife are in "pretty good" health considering their ages though he has had vision difficulties, and they must therefore retain a driver.
Bradley M. "Brad" Mead (one of the two sons of Mary and Peter Mead and a grandson of Clifford and Martha Hansen) and his wife, Katherine L. "Kate" Mead, are attorneys in Jackson. Kate Mead, a Vermont native who came to Wyoming on a skiing scholarship, was the Republican nominee for the District 16 seat in the Wyoming House of Representatives in the November 7, 2006, general election. She was handily defeated, however, by the incumbent Democrat Pete Jorgenson.
Upon the death of former Republican Senator Hiram L. Fong of Hawaii in August 2004, Hansen became the oldest living person to have served in the United States Senate.
[edit] References
Billy Hathorn, interviews with Clifford P. Hansen, August 10 and September 9, 2006
http://www.casperstartribune.net/wyelections/?page_id=44
http://www.jacksonholenews.com/Archives/NewsArchive/2003/030625-News.html
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=10745
Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections, Wyoming gubernatorial returns, 1962, 1990; Wyoming Senate returns, 1966 and 1972
http://soswy.state.wy.us/election/2006/results/06-gen.htm
| Preceded by Jack R. Gage (D) |
Governor of Wyoming
Clifford Peter Hansen (R) |
Succeeded by Stanley K. Hathaway (R) |
| Preceded by Milward L. Simpson (R) |
U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Wyoming
Clifford Peter Hansen (R) |
Succeeded by Alan Kooi Simpson (R) |
| Governors of Wyoming |
 |
|---|---|
| Warren • Barber • Osborne • W. Richards • D. Richards • Chatterton • Brooks • J. Carey • Kendrick • Houx • R. Carey • W. Ross • Lucas • N. Ross • Emerson • Clark • Miller • Smith • Hunt • Crane • Barrett • Rogers • Simpson • Hickey • Gage • Hansen • Hathaway • Herschler • Sullivan • Geringer • Freudenthal |
