BEV HOLLINGWORTH

Progressive responsibility in leadership positions, consistent dedication and sound decision making define Bev Hollingworth’s experience in the New Hampshire Legislature.   This experience, coupled with her unfailing advocacy for children and working class families,  earned her the respect of her colleagues who not only elected her the second woman to serve as President of the Senate, but also  to  preside over the first impeachment trial in the history of the state.

Bev Hollingworth was first elected to the represent her hometown of Hampton in the House of Representatives in 1980. The owner and operator of a hotel and restaurant at Hampton Beach, her experience as a leader in the business community and as a patient advocate at the New England Medical Center prompted her to government service where she could sponsor legislation needed to assist working families.

In the House, then Representative Hollingworth served on the Judiciary Committee while winning a reputation for her mastery of issues associated with energy, healthcare and insurance. Throughout the 1980s, she led the effort to introduce “living will” legislation that succeeded over the governor’s veto. At her initiative, New Hampshire was the first state to repeal the spousal exception from the rape statute. Her legislation ensured that utilities met the cost of closing nuclear plants and storing nuclear waste. She sponsored legislation requiring elected officials to disclose conflicts of interest. And she championed legislation to honor civil rights and Dr. Martin Luther King by celebrating the national holiday that ultimately succeeded when Representative Hollingworth had become Senator Hollingworth.

As a freshman senator in 1991 she contributed to the success of the economic development program pursued by the Senate to overcome the most severe recession to strike New Hampshire since World War II. Soon she was applying her experience to achieve major reforms of health insurance and workers’ compensation as well as playing a major role in the budget process. Simultaneously, she continued to address the issues she had pursued in the House -- children’s health, domestic violence and the safety of nuclear power. Her legislation establishing an immunization program for children in partnership with the insurance industry became a model emulated by other states and she sponsored legislation to strengthen the domestic violence laws. Throughout the bankruptcy, merger and deregulation of Public Service Company of New Hampshire, Senator Hollingworth ensured there would be sufficient funds to close Seabrook Station when the time came, without compromising public safety.

In 1997, with Republicans holding a commanding majority in the Senate, Senator Hollingworth played a key role in furthering initiatives to expand access to public kindergarten, lower costs of health insurance, enhance children’s health care, and reduce retail electric rates.

In 1998, Senator Hollingworth was among the most experienced members of the first Democratic majority in the Senate since 1912. As Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, she was the principal architect of the Senate budget, which was endorsed by the House without amendment – an unprecedented achievement in New Hampshire.  Working with pharmaceutical manufacturers, healthcare practitioners, retail pharmacists and public interest groups, Senator Hollingworth established the “Medication Bridge Program,” which provides prescription medications to qualified patients in need of all ages without charge and at no cost to the taxpayer. Also, she was a key member of the negotiating team that fashioned the settlement agreement to complete the deregulation of the retail electric industry, reducing rates for residential customers by 15 percent.
In 1999, Senator Hollingworth was elected by her fellow Senators, both Republican and Democrat,  to succeed the late Clesson “Junie” Blaisdell as President of the Senate.  Similarly, she was selected by her colleagues to serve as the presiding officer of the first impeachment trial in the history of New Hampshire, where she earned accolades from all parties to these historic proceedings for her sound judgment and fair rulings.
When the election of 2000 returned a Republican majority to the Senate, Senator Hollingworth became Democratic Leader. She led the effort to craft a legitimate, sustainable and equitable means of funding public education and the opposition to balancing the budget on inflated revenue estimates and increased business taxes. As the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, she was instrumental in doubling funding to promote travel and tourism in New Hampshire, our primary industry.  With the resultant increase in revenue derived from the tourism increase,  she worked to ensure funding for the Granite State Scholars Program, Tuition Incentive Grants Program, and Best Schools Leadership Program as well as increases in both the operating and capital budgets of the University System. Additionally, she was instrumental in the appropriation of $12 million for the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP).

After an unsuccessful run for governor in 2002, she expanded her community involvement in the Hampton and Seacoast area focusing on environmental and economic issues. She serves as a volunteer docent at the Seacoast Science Center, having completed the docent training program at UNH this spring. She was also appointed by Governor John Lynch to serve on the Leadership Team of the NH Citizens Health Initiative.

Bev Hollingworth has long been a civic and business leader in the Town of Hampton where she spent her childhood and raised her family. She has served as President of the Hampton and Seacoast chambers of commerce as well as on the boards of the Seacoast Hospice and Northeast Health Care Quality Foundation. She has been awarded the Civil Justice Award by the New Hampshire Trial Lawyers and was named a Hero for New Hampshire Children by the New Hampshire Alliance for Children and Youth. In 2001, she was awarded the Caroline Gross Fellowship to attend Harvard University where she completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Bev Hollingworth has four children and three grandchildren. She and her husband, Dr. William Gilligan, a vice-president of Emerson College in Boston, live in Hampton.