George Vernon Hansen

Republican politician whose open disdain for federal authority made him a popular figure in Idaho, where he was elected to Congress seven times, and who twice landed in federal prison. In 1974, Mr. Hansen became the first member of Congress to be convicted of violating a 1971 campaign regulation requiring disclosure of financial contributions. In 1984 Mr. Hansen was convicted of violating the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, a post-Watergate measure, by failing to disclose $334,000 in personal loans and other transactions. Mr. Hansen was also in prison for a 1992 conviction on charges of defrauding two Idaho banks and 200 individuals in a $30 million investment scheme. He is survived by three sons, Steven, James and William; two daughters, Patricia and Joanne; 10 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and a brother, Dean. His wife of 61 years, Connie Sue Camp Hansen, who was staff manager in his Washington office and served on the Pocatello City Council, died in 2013. A Representative from Idaho; born in Tetonia, Teton County, Idaho, September 14, 1930; attended public schools; Ricks College, Rexburg, Idaho, B.A., 1956; did graduate work at Idaho State University, 1956-1957 and 1962-1963; graduated from Grimms Business College in 1958; served in the United States Air Force, 1951-1954, and was a graduate of the Army language school; officer in the United States Naval Reserve, 1964-1970; grain elevator manager, 1950-1951 and 1954; public school teacher, 1956-1958; engaged in the life insurance business, 1958-1965; mayor of Alameda, Idaho, 1961-1962; upon consolidation of Alameda and Pocatello served as city commissioner of Pocatello, 1962-1965; past director of the Idaho Municipal League, 1961-1963; unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1962; delegate, Republican National Convention, 1968; elected as a Republican to the Eighty-ninth and Ninetieth Congresses (January 3, 1965-January 3, 1969); was not a candidate for reelection in 1968 but ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate; deputy under secretary for congressional liaison, deputy administrator for Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service, and vice president of Commodity Credit Corporation, United States Department of Agriculture, 1969-1971; returned to Pocatello and engaged in private business pursuits, 1971-1975; unsuccessful candidate for nomination to the United States Senate in 1972; elected as a Republican to the Ninety-fourth and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1975-January 3, 1985); was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1984 to the Ninety-ninth Congress; chairman of a political consulting firm in Washington, D.C.; is a resident of Arlington, Va.