Ken Hollis

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Ken Hollis
In office
1982 – January 14, 2008
Preceded by M. Joseph Tiemann
Succeeded by Stephen Joseph "Steve" Scalise
In office
1980 – 1982
Born March 13, 1942 (1942-03-13) (age 67)
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Barbara Jones Hollis
Children Mike Hollis of New Orleans

Trey Hollis of Fayetteville, Arkansas
Paul Hollis of Mandeville
Occupation Insurance executive
Religion Presbyterianism
(1) Hollis, as a Louisiana lawmaker, was a generally fiscal conservative Republican who also supported gay rights. His position brought him into conflict with a Republican colleague, former Senator Phil Short.

Jesse Kendrick "Ken" Hollis (born March 13, 1942) is a former Republican Party (GOP) member of the Louisiana State Senate from Metairie in Jefferson Parish in the New Orleans suburbs. He served from 1982, when he won a special election to fill an unexpired term, until he was term-limited, effective January 14, 2008.

In 2003, Hollis launched an exploratory campaign for governor but never filed his papers even though he claimed that his early polling was encouraging. He instead endorsed intraparty rival Hunt Downer of Houma, the seat of Terrebonne Parish in south Louisiana. Downer finished in sixth place in the jungle primary, and the office ultimately went to the Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette. Because he did not run for governor, Hollis was able to secure his sixth full term in the state Senate District 9.

As his Senate successor, Hollis endorsed Republican State Representative Steve Scalise, a conservative who won the seat in the primary held on October 20, 2007.

Contents

[edit] Early years, education, military

Hollis was born and reared in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the largest city in central Louisiana. He graduated in 1960 from Bolton High School. One of his classmates was former Mayor Edward G. "Ned" Randolph, Jr., who served in the state Senate from 1976-1984. Their tenures hence coincided only in the short session to which Hollis was elected in 1982. Hollis thereafter received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish in north Louisiana.

Hollis was a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1967-1974.

A Presbyterian, Hollis is a board member of United Christian Charities. He is married to Diane Hollis.

After graduation from Louisiana Tech, Hollis entered the insurance business as MassMutual's regional group manager, a position that he retained until 1981. Hollis then served as MassMutual's general agent for the State of Louisiana until he retired from that position in January 1998. He is since the president and chief executive officer of Hollis Companies which specialize in employee benefits consulting.

Prior to his Senate tenure, he was an elected member of the Jefferson Parish governing council from 1980-1982.

[edit] Legislative activities

In his last Senate term, Hollis is chairman of the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee and a member of the Judiciary "B" and Retirement committees

Hollis was unopposed in his bids for re-election in 1983, 1987, 1991 and 1999. In 1995, he defeated fellow Republican Greg Reinhard in the primary, 29,240 (80 percent) to 7,361 (20 percent). In 2003, Hollis defeated fellow Republican Polly Thomas in the primary, 19,570 (61 percent) to 12,504 (39 percent).

In the Senate, Hollis supported Planned Parenthood of America and one of its opposite interest groups, the Louisiana Family Forum, each approximately 33 percent of the time. Two other rival interest groups, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the AFL-CIO each graded Hollis between 70 and 80 percent in his last legislative years. The Christian Coalition rated him 55 percent. The Louisiana Association of Educators rated him from 40 to 90 percent, depending on the year.

Hollis was named "Senator of the Year for Jefferson Parish" in 1985, 1987, and 1993 by the interest group, the Alliance for Good Government. He was designated as "Man of the Year" in 1984 by the New Orleans chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors. He is a past president of the Louisiana State Employees' Group Benefits Program.

In 1993, Hollis, along with fellow lawmakers Kernan "Skip" Hand, Jim Donelon, and Steve Theriot, all of the New Orleans suburbs, admitted to having given Tulane University scholarships to their children. Legislators are allowed under an 1884 law to designate one Tulane scholarship recipient per year, but the practice of giving such awards, totaling $17,000 in 1993 dollars, to family members had been previously unknown.[1]

[edit] Supporting gay rights

In 2001, Hollis acknowledged that his son, Michael Hollis is homosexual. He introduced a bill to prohibit all but the smallest businesses in Louisiana from discriminating against employees because of sexual preference.

"This was a real gut issue for me. I realized this is probably not the smartest position, politically, to take. It would have been easy for me to be somewhere else. But I just reached down deep. I voted for it. I did the right thing, and I have had a calm feeling since," Hollis told the national homosexual publication The Advocate in its June 19, 2001 issue. Mike Hollis is also a Louisiana Tech graduate and at the time was a Tech administrator who feared that he could be fired from his job. He since left the university and works with his father in providing employee benefits consulting to both large and small companies in the region.

The Senate committee voted 3-2 to send the bill to the full chamber, where it was defeated. The bill made Hollis a rare Republican favorite among the interest group the Louisiana Electorate of Gays and Lesbians, Inc.

[edit] Paul Hollis

Meanwhile, another Hollis son, Paul Hollis of Mandeville in St. Tammany Parish, announced that he would run for the United States Senate in 2008 but never filed his papers. The Republican nominee, State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, a recent convert from the Democratic Party, lost to the incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu.

Paul Hollis is a collector of rare coins, having begun with Blanchard and Company of New Orleans, one of the nation's largest rare coin firms. He formerly hosted "The Coin Vault," a nationally televised program that reached 60 million homes on the Shop at Home television network. He eventually started his own coin firm and specializes ancient coins that circulated during the lifetime of Jesus Christ.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Scott Dyer, "Scholarship controversy grows", June 17, 1993". Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/tulanegateb_box.htm. Retrieved November 15, 2009. 

[edit] References

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Hollis"