Dennis Hollingsworth

• Biography:

  Dennis Hollingsworth is the Senator for the 36th District of California, which includes portions of San Diego and Riverside Counties.

  Hollingsworth was elected to the California State Senate in November of 2002, after serving one term as the Assemblyman for the 66th District. Soon after being sworn into office the freshman was tapped to serve as Senate Republican Caucus Whip, and he also serves the Senate Republicans as Chairman of the Caucus’ Elections Committee.

  Senator Hollingsworth serves as Vice Chairman of the Senate Banking, Commerce and International Trade Committee, and Vice Chairman of the Housing and Community Development Committee. He is also a member of the committees on Agriculture and Water Resources, the Committees on Local Government and Revenue and Taxation, and the committee on Natural Resources and Wildlife.

  As a fiscal conservative and staunch opponent of high taxation and government waste, Hollingsworth leads the Senate’s California Taxpayer Protection Caucus, under the banner of Americans for Tax Reform, the nation’s leading taxpayer organization. In a similar vein, Senator Hollingsworth is the California State Public Sector Chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the largest national organization of state legislators, which is dedicated to the principles of free enterprise, limited government and individual liberty.

  During his tenure Hollingsworth has been an outspoken advocate for tough laws against child predators. He was a leader of Project KidSafe in the Assembly in 2002, and has continued that work in the Senate, expanding the effort to encompass twelve major legislative proposals and a statewide initiative intended to protect children from predators and violent offenders. Assembly Bill 1858, his successful S.A.F.E. Teams Act to assist law enforcement agencies in tracking violent sex offenders required to register under Megan’s law was signed into law in September of 2002.

  Because of his legislative efforts protecting victims of child pornography, Senator Hollingsworth was named “Legislator of the Year” for 2003 by the California Sexual Assault Investigators Association.

  Senator Hollingsworth’s constituents suffered tremendous losses in last Fall’s wildfires and, as a result his legislative agenda for 2004 has focused on fire relief and fire prevention measures. As an extension of Hollingsworth’s career defending property owners from onerous government regulations, Hollingsworth stepped up his fight to allow rural property owners to protect their homes and properties by clearing adequate defensible space in fire prone areas without being hindered by environmental regulations like the Endangered Species Act.

  Prior to serving in the legislature, Hollingsworth was a business owner and Legislative Director for the Riverside County Farm Bureau. His work made him a nationally recognized leader in the defense of private property rights and he frequently testified before Congress on the need for reform of the Endangered Species Act. Continuing that work in the Legislature earned him “Off-Road Recereation Legislator of the Year, 2004” from the Friends of the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Program.

  An avid outdoorsman and conservationist, Hollingsworth is past chairman of the state organization of Quail Unlimited, Inc. He attended Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo and Cornell University where he studied Dairy Science, Agricultural Management and International Relations.

  Dennis, his wife Natalie and two sons live in Murrieta.