Sen. Ernest Hollings (D) Elected 1966, 6th term up 2004
Born:	Jan. 1, 1922, Charleston
Home:	Charleston
Education:	The Citadel, B.A. 1942, U. of SC, LL.B. 1947
Religion:	Lutheran
Marital Status:	married (Peatsy)
Elected  Office:	SC House of Reps., 1948-54, Speaker Pro-Tem, 1951-54; SC Lt. Gov., 1954-58; SC Gov., 1958-62.
Military Career:	Army, 1942-45 (WWII).
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1947-55, 1963-66.
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Ernest Hollings, after 36 years as South Carolina's junior senator, the longest-serving junior senator in history, became senior senator in January 2003, at 80, on the retirement of 100-year-old Strom Thurmond. Hollings grew up in Charleston, in moderate but not aristocratic circumstances, graduated from The Citadel and served in the Army in combat in World War II. Returning home, he worked as a trial lawyer and was elected to the legislature in 1948, at 26, and was a member of the leadership two years later; he was elected governor in 1958, at 36, serving as South Carolina first faced school desegregation, which thanks to his efforts proceeded in an orderly fashion--a considerable achievement at the time. Hollings also set up the state's technical colleges, which he credits for some of South Carolina's manufacturing growth. He then spent four years out of office until he beat another former governor in the 1966 special election Senate race. In 1968 he went on hunger tours in the Low Country and in 1970 wrote The Case Against Hunger, and later co-authored the WIC program. Hollings has one of the quickest and sharpest tongues in the Senate and an instinct for zeroing in on others' weaknesses--though he sometimes gets himself in trouble.

Hollings has served on the Senate Budget Committee longer than anyone else. In the early 1980s he argued for a budget freeze. In 1983 and 1984 he ran for president; his candidacy did not get far, but when spending was frozen a dozen years later the budget was balanced not long after. In 1985 he co-sponsored the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit-cutting bill, which did in fact lead to lower deficits. When the May 1997 budget agreement was reached, Hollings insisted that it would not produce a surplus, since the total of government and intragovernmental debt (including Social Security's Treasury IOUs) would still be rising; he offered to jump off the Capitol dome if the Treasury ever reported a surplus.

Hollings spent much of the 1990s working on telecommunications issues, as Chairman or ranking minority member on the Commerce Committee and its Communications Subcommittee. Telecom issues were probably the most intellectually demanding and certainly the most heavily lobbied issues in Congress during many of those years, and Hollings managed to keep an even keel--and to get legislation passed. Hollings's instinct is to regulate at the federal level, which puts him at odds with many trends of the times. He was the major opponent of deregulating broadcasting and a major proponent of the 1992 Cable Reregulation Act, the one law on which Congress overrode George H. W. Bush's veto. But he has also been the most persistent backer of what became the telecommunications act of 1996, for more competition between long distance companies and the regional Bells. He first raised the issue in the early 1990s, then worked hard as a bill passed the House in 1994; but it died in the Senate because Hollings insisted that regional Bell companies get actual competition in local service before they were permitted to enter the long distance or cable markets. In 1995 and 1996, Hollings worked with new Chairman Larry Pressler to produce a bipartisan bill, which was signed into law in February 1996.

Hollings has worked since then to superintend the deregulatory process, working to block the regional Bells from the long distance market and Internet business. He continued to insist on FCC rather than state regulation of the rates regional Bells could charge long distance companies for interconnecting their wires, but at the same time criticized the FCC for its enforcement, or non-enforcement, of the act. In 2001 and 2002 he vigorously opposed the Dingell-Tauzin bill, passed in the House, to allow the Bells to provide broadband service; after he became Chairman of the committee in June 2001 it was apparent it was going nowhere in the Senate. He has decried the 1995 FCC rule change that lifted the limit on the number of radio stations a media company can buy and opposes FCC Chariman Michael Powell's moves to lift other limits. He has taken the side of the media content providers over high-tech companies on the issue of copying, and sponsored a bill to require anti-piracy chips to be installed in personal computers, handheld organizers and other electronic equipment. Another Hollings bill would require the high-tech and media industries to agreeing on devices to prevent unauthorized copying of copyrighted material or have one imposed on them by the FCC; but that has been blocked by the Judiciary Committee.

In 2002 Democrats lost their majority, and the chairmanship went back to John McCain, with whom Hollings has had stormy relations. In May 1998 Hollings vigorously opposed the tobacco bill that McCain passed through the committee 19-1 after it was changed to phase out tobacco price supports; there are many tobacco farmers in the corner of South Carolina around Marlboro and Chesterfield counties. In early 1999 he seemed to mistrust McCain for his presidential candidacy, though he did join with him in sponsoring a bill to require software to block inappropriate material from the Internet wired up to schools under a Gore-backed FCC measure. After September 11, Hollings was skeptical when the airlines sought a bailout; on September 15 he said, "I would be willing to consider compensation if they give up monopolistic control of the nation's hub airports." But he held hearings September 20 and worked for a bill imposing tough conditions; he added provisions guaranteeing service for small communities and capping executives' pay raises for airlines that got federal money. In October 2001 Hollings and McCain agreed that airline security should be turned over to federal employees; that view prevailed unanimously in the Senate and in conference committee, despite opposition from the House and the Bush administration. Hollings was a staunch opponent of allowing pilots to carry guns, but in July 2002, when it was clear that large majorities in both houses were in favor, he said he would not block a vote. "I am not the mother superior. Let them vote." He sponsored a port security bill which passed. On the committee he has been a great supporter of Amtrak, backing in 2002 and 2003 a $4.6 billion package with $1.3 billion for security, $1.3 billion for development of high-speed corridors in the Northeast and $1.5 billion for them in the rest of the country, plus $580 million for long distance trains; he has plans for a passenger rail network linking Greenville, Columbia, Florence, Charleston and Myrtle Beach with Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh.

Hollings has been one of the Senate's strongest opponents of free trade and one of its strongest backers of trial lawyers. On trade, he has worked to protect textile jobs in South Carolina, even though they are in long-term decline and the state has been growing anyway. He opposed NAFTA and caused GATT to be postponed until after the 1994 elections over the objections of then-Majority Leader George Mitchell, and then voted against. He filibustered the Africa and Caribbean trade bill in November 1999 until cloture was voted 74-23. He delivered a long speech against PNTR with China in September 2000 and sought to retain annual review and to drop the words "permanent" and "normal." He remembers his own days as a trial lawyer and regards plaintiff's attorneys as fighters for the rights of the little guy. He opposed the 1999 Y2K relief bill as an infringement on the right to sue. He was one of three Democrats to oppose the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill. Twice he has sponsored amendments to the First Amendment to allow Congress to set "reasonable limits" on campaign contributions and spending; they were defeated 61-38 in March 1997 and 67-33 in March 2000. A longtime supporter of Israel, in 2002 he referred to Ariel Sharon as "the Bull Connor of Israel" and added, "You can't be bulldozing houses and wonder why little kids are throwing rocks."

In increasingly Republican South Carolina, Hollings won his fifth and sixth terms by relatively narrow margins--50%-47% over former Congressman Tommy Harnett in 1992 (his January 1991 vote against the Gulf war resolution may have hurt) and 53%-46% over Congressman Bob Inglis in 1998. Inglis eschewed pork barrel spending and promised to serve only 12 years and asked Hollings to join him in a ''courteous'' campaign. This is not Hollings's style; in mid-October Hollings described Inglis to the Rock Hill Herald in mid-October thusly: ''He finesses all around. He is Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. He's all around the damn clock, so oozing and goozing and such a nice little choirboy and so pleasant, and everybody's rude, and he wants to be courteous. He is a goddamn skunk.'' He apologized the next day, and said he was angered by ''the gross distortions of my record and the callous accusations that have been leveled against me''--obviously staff-written language, without the authentic Hollings touch. Hollings's not-so-secret weapon was money; he outspent Inglis, who promised not to take PAC money, by $4.9 million to $2.1 million. Hollings organized a turnout drive that had a major effect on election day; he also benefited from the lively campaign of Governor Jim Hodges, financed heavily by video poker money.

Will Hollings run again in 2004, when he turns 82? In August 2000 he told a cheering South Carolina Democratic convention that he would, but in late 2002 and early 2003 he was more circumspect, while his staffers said they were assuming he would. Certainly age should not be a barrier in a state that reelected Strom Thurmond just one month before he turned 82, 88 and 94. But if he does run he seems likely to have strong competition again and, if George W. Bush is as strong in November 2004 as he was in early 2003, this will be the first time he will have run in a year when a Republican presidential candidate is sweeping the state. Announced candidates in early 2003 were 4th District Congressman Jim DeMint, Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride and former Attorney General Charlie Condon, who started to run for the Senate in 2001 and in 2002 switched to the governor race and finished third in the Republican primary. It was widely understood that DeMint had the backing of the Bush White House. If Hollings does not run, the Democratic field is thin. "If not Fritz, then who?" asked local political columnist Lee Bandy. "There just aren't any Democrats, which tells you something about the condition of the party. It's in bad shape."

Update: September 23, 2003
On August 5, 2003, Hollings announced that he would not seek reelection in 2004. "I am frustrated with Washington," he said. "It has gotten totally partisan. We are not serious about anything except the next election."

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DC Office
125 RSOB 20510, 202-224-6121; Fax: 202-224-4293; Web site: hollings.senate.gov

State Offices
Charleston, 843-727-4525; Columbia,803-765-5731; Greenville,864-233-5366.

Committees

• Appropriations: Commerce, Justice, State & Judiciary (RMM); Defense; Energy & Water Development; Homeland Security; Interior; Labor, HHS & Education.
• Budget.
• Commerce, Science & Transportation (RMM): Aviation; Communications (RMM); Oceans, Fisheries & Coast Guard.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	85	60	100	65	58	38	19	55	15	9	--
2001	90	--	83	88	--	--	7	50	29	--	40

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	66%	--	34%		66%	--	32%
Social	65%	--	32%		52%	--	46%
Foreign	51%	--	43%		64%	--	33%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 2. Expand Patients' Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Permit ANWR Development N 5. Confirm Ashcroft as AG N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. $ for Hate Crime Prosecution Y  8. Overseas Military Abortions Y  9. Bar Coop. with Intl. Court Y 10. Trade Promotion Authority N 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
1998 general	Ernest Hollings (D)	563,296	53%	$4,968,456
	Bob Inglis (R)	488,217	46%	$2,143,278
	Other	17,444	2%
1998 primary	Ernest Hollings (D)	unopposed
1992 general	Ernest Hollings (D)	591,030	50%	$4,188,829
	Tommy Hartnett (R)	554,175	47%	$886,816
	Other	35,233	3%
Prior winning percentages: 1986 (63%); 1980 (70%); 1974 (70%); 1968 (62%); 1966 (51%)