Steve Bennett

Steve Bennett’s public life has run through Nordhoff High School, Ventura City Hall, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and, now, the California State Assembly. He spent twenty years teaching economics and American history at Calabasas and Nordhoff high schools, later leading Nordhoff’s counseling department and working as an assistant principal. His electoral career began with a 1991 write-in campaign for the Ventura City Council and continued through repeated county contests before his election to the Assembly. Along the way, his record included repeated efforts on campaign-finance limits, as well as actions concerning worker pay, offshore drilling and the rules governing local political power. He now represents Assembly District 38.

ROOTS AND FIRST OFFICE

Bennett was born in Indianapolis on Dec. 31, 1950. He graduated from Brown University with an honours degree in economics in 1972 and received a master’s degree in education from Butler University in 1976. He married Leslie Ogden, has four children and moved to Ventura.

In the 1990s, Bennett served as spokesman for Voters for Alternate Sites and was a leader of the Alliance for Ventura’s Future. His first City Council campaign, in 1991, was a write-in effort. Endorsed by Patagonia and the Ventura Sierra Club, he finished fifth among 18 candidates. Two years later, he placed second and won a council seat.

Bennett served from 1993 through 1997, then declined to run again under his promise to serve only one term. His council record included a 1994 vote for a resolution opposing Proposition 187, a 1995 vote to have the city attorney support Santa Barbara’s appeal concerning a federal court ruling, and a 1997 vote against term limits for members of Ventura’s boards, commissions and committees.

FROM CITY HALL TO SACRAMENTO

Bennett announced his campaign for the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on April 7, 1999. He defeated Jim Monahan and Rosa Lee Measures in the initial election, then beat Monahan in the runoff. He won again against Jeffrey Ketelsen in 2004, ran without opposition in 2008, defeated Bob Roper after a 2012 contest that also included Christy Weir and Neal Andrews, and beat Dave Grau in 2016. Term limits prevented a sixth term, and Matt LaVere succeeded him.

There was one attempted departure from that county path. Bennett announced a campaign for the United States House of Representatives on Nov. 16, 2011, but withdrew at the California Democratic Party’s state convention. Julia Brownley won the seat in 2012.

Bennett later ran for the Assembly from the 37th Assembly District. He placed second in the primary behind Republican Charles W. Cole, then defeated Cole in the general election. In the state house, Bennett has served on the Budget, Education, Elections, Privacy and Consumer Protection, Rules, and Water, Parks and Wildlife committees. He is also a member of the California Legislative Progressive Caucus.

THE POLICY SIGNATURE

The most persistent part of Bennett’s record is his attention to the terms under which political money enters local government. On the City Council, he proposed a $100 limit on campaign contributions. He also pushed for a 1998 ballot initiative prohibiting organized groups from donating to candidates. As a county supervisor, he proposed an eleven-member ethics panel. These were efforts aimed not merely at officeholders but at the machinery around them: contributors, organized groups and the local bodies responsible for enforcing political rules.

His policy record also identifies the constituencies and interests he has repeatedly placed before public agencies. Bennett supported raising the minimum wage to $8 an hour for workers receiving medical benefits. He called for a resolution prohibiting new federal leases for offshore oil and gas drilling. In 2024, he authored legislation barring the commercial farming of octopuses; Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it in September.

Taken together, the record is clearest on campaign-finance restrictions, worker pay, offshore protection and animal welfare. The documented record includes repeated efforts on campaign-finance restrictions, as well as individual actions involving wage standards, offshore drilling and commercial octopus farming.