Cliff Hansen
From Usgovsim
| ||||
| United States Representative | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Office: 2008 - Present | ||||
| Constituency | Fourth District of Arizona | |||
| Preceded by | Ed Pastor | |||
| Succeeded by | incumbent | |||
| Born | August 3, 1973 Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada | |||
| Political Party | Independent/Democrat | |||
| Spouse | Ashleigh Marshing Hansen | |||
| Religion | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints | |||
Clifford Stanley Hansen (born August 3, 1973, in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada), better known as Cliff Hansen, is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona. He represents the state's Fourth Congressional District, which consists of Phoenix and the suburbs of Guadalupe and Glendale.
[edit] Early Years and Education
Hansen was raised in Raymond, Alberta, and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the age of eight. Having grown up in the church, he enrolled at Brigham Young University, a Latter-Day Saint school in Provo, Utah, Utah. However, dissatisfied with the atmosphere there, he transferred south to Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. He received a B.S. in chemical engineering with a minor in small business.
[edit] Entrepreneurial Career
Through an ASU job placement program, Cliff spent a year working with the Arizona Geological Survey in Tucson. In 1992, he returned to the Sun Valley to start Chemizona, a Phoenix-based chemical engineering business. He originally did contract work for other small businesses, but soon hired associates to assist him as Chemizona grew to become somewhat of a prominent name in the boardrooms of the Southwest. Indeed, Cliff soon found some of the Southwest's premier businesses on his client roll.
Cliff's biggest–––and most controversial–––project came in 2001, when the Phoenix-based mining giant Phelps Dodge summoned Chemizona to develop a chemical treatment of copper dug up from the company's mines in Arizona and New Mexico. The project ran from 2001 to 2004, and resulted in Chemizona developing a dangerous substance to improve the glossiness of Phelps Dodge's copper. However, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality examined the chemical closely, and it tested positive for THC (the primary ingredient of marijuana). By that time, it had already been used on many of Phelps Dodge's copper, but the use of it was shut off indefinitely. The state Attorney General sued Hansen and Chemizona. Cliff claimed that he didn't know there was THC in it, and that if there was it had gotten in there by mistake. The case was eventually dismissed in May 2005, after a follow-up test contradicted the results of the initial test.
Between 1998 and 2010, Chemizona handled other projects for Phelps Dodge, as well as for the Salt River Project and Honeywell in Arizona; Kennecott in Utah; and Coors Brewing in Colorado.
[edit] Entry into Politics
Cliff first entered politics when, after a successful application, he was appointed as an Equal Opportunity Coordinator for the Governor's Office of Equal Opportunity by Governor Jane Dee Hull. There, his job was to ensure the fair administration and compliance of state and federal laws that prohibit state employment discrimination. He held this job until 2005.
In 2004, Cliff ran for the Arizona state House of Representatives. Although unaffiliated with either party, he ran for the Republican Party's nomination, doing so unopposed. He faced off against Tom Farley, his home district's Democratic incumbent, whom he highly disproved of. During the campaign season, the Hansen campaign stated time and again that Farley, as a member of the House's Appropriations Committee, voted to spend too much money, and stated that Cliff would spend money wisely.
