Nevada Contractor Balances Plumbing and Politics

Ira Hansen’s service goes well beyond his regular plumbing customers. In addition to owning and operating his company, Ira Hansen & Sons Plumbing in Sparks, Nevada, Hansen is a Nevada state assemblyman serving his third two-year term.“Most companies avoid politics like the plague,” Hansen says. “Being in office is highly controversial, but I believe it is my civic duty. You just stand there and slug it out.”Hansen has additionally been a talk show host for local stations, and wrote a newspaper column for 17 years for the Sparks Tribune and Elko Daily Free Press.He and his wife, Alexis, have eight children and 11