Steve Bennett (California politician)

Stephen Bennett (born December 31, 1950) is an American activist, educator, and politician serving as a member of the California State Assembly from the 38th district as a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his tenure in the state legislature, he was active in local politics in Ventura, California, and Ventura County, California, with him serving on the city council and board of supervisors.

Bennett was born in Indiana, and educated at Brown University and Butler University. He worked as an educator at Calabasas High School and Nordhoff High School before moving to Ventura. He became active in local politics in Ventura by working with the Voters for Alternate Sites and serving as a leader of the Alliance for Ventura's Future.

He was elected to the Ventura city council in 1993, after an unsuccessful write-in candidacy in 1991, and served until 1997. Following his tenure in the city council he served on the county board of supervisors. During his tenure on the board of supervisors he served as chair and he ran a campaign for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, but withdrew. Bennett was elected to the state house in the 2020 election.

Early life and education
Steve Bennett was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 31, 1950. He graduated from Brown University with an honours degree in economics in 1972, and graduated from Butler University with a master's degree in education in 1976. He worked as a high school teacher who taught economics and American history for twenty years at Calabasas High School and Nordhoff High School. He married Leslie Ogden, with whom he had four children, and moved to Ventura, California. Bennett later led the counseling department and worked as assistant principal at Nordhoff High School after leaving the city council. He admires Harry S. Truman and William Jennings Bryan as his political heroes.

Activism
In the 1990s Bennett served as the spokesman for the Voters for Alternate Sites organization which opposed the construction of a new campus by the California State University near the Robert Taylor Ranch. He also worked as one of the leaders of the Alliance for Ventura's Future which aided in the election of three candidates to the Ventura city council. He later served as president of the Alliance for Ventura's Future.

Ventura City Council
Bennett ran for one of three seats on the Ventura city council as a write-in candidate in 1991, and placed fifth out of eighteen candidates. During the campaign he had been endorsed by Patagonia, Inc. and the Ventura Sierra Club. Bennett won election to the Ventura city council after placing second in the 1993 election and during the campaign he spent $21,487. He served on the city council until 1997, when he announced that he would not seek reelection due to a campaign promise to only serve one term.

Bennett nominated Gary Tuttle, a member of the city council, to serve as mayor in 1995, and initially supported him, but after Jack Tingstrom won the position of mayor by a vote of five to two a second vote was requested by Bennett and Tuttle so that they could unanimously support Tingstrom. During the 1996 presidential election Bennett seconded a motion to allow Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp to use Ventura's city hall for a rally in the name of "bipartisanship".

Ventura County Board of Supervisors
Susan Lacey, a member of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, retired from her position. Bennett announced that he would seek election to the seat on April 7, 1999. Bennett won the initial election against Jim Monahan and Rosa Lee Measures and then defeated Monahan in the runoff election. He announced on June 9, 2003, that he would seek reelection and won reelection in the 2004 election against Jeffrey Ketelsen. He won reelection without opposition in 2008. Bennett defeated Bob Roper, Christy Weir, and Neal Andrews in the initial election in 2012, and defeated Roper in the runoff election. He defeated Dave Grau in the 2016 election. Bennett was unable to seek reelection as supervisor for a sixth term due to term limits that were implemented in 2008. Matt LaVere, the mayor of Ventura, was elected to succeed Bennett.

During his tenure he served as chair of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors multiple times and Kelly Long succeeded him as chair after his last term as chair.

Bennett announced on November 16, 2011, that he would seek election to the United States House of Representatives from California's 26th congressional district, but he announced at the California Democratic Party's state convention that he was withdrawing from the election. Julia Brownley won the seat in the 2012 election.

California State Assembly
Bennett ran for a seat in the California State Assembly from the California's 37th State Assembly district. He placed second in the primary behind Republican Charles W. Cole and ahead of Democratic candidates Cathy Murillo, Jonathan Abboud, Jason Dominguez, Elsa Granados, and Stephen Blum. He defeated Cole in the general election.

During Bennett's tenure in the state house he served on the Budget, Education, Elections, Privacy and Consumer Protection, Rules, and Water, Parks, and Wildlife committees.

Bennett is a member of the California Legislative Progressive Caucus.

Political positions
In 1994, the Ventura city council voted, with Bennett voting in favor, in favor of a resolution opposing Proposition 187, which would not allow illegal immigrants to have access to healthcare or education. In 1995, the city council voted four to three, with Bennett voting in favor, in favor of having the Ventura city attorney file a brief in support of the city council of Santa Barbara, California's appeal of a federal court ruling. The ruling declared that an eight-foot bubble ordinance outside family planning clinics was unconstitutional. In 1997, the city council voted three to three, with Bennett voting against, on legislation that would have implemented term limits on people serving on Ventura's fourteen boards, commissions, and committees.

Campaign finance
Bennett, who had refused to accept donations above $100 during his city council campaign, proposed legislation to limit campaign contributions to $100, but the city council voted four to two against it. He requested that the campaign contribution limit be placed onto the ballot as a proposition by the city council and the placement was approved by a vote of five to two. The League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Sierra Club, and Voters Coalition of Ventura aided Bennett in the writing of the proposition. The proposition limited campaign donations to $100, but allowed it to be $200 if the candidate agreed to limit their spending to $20,000. Bennett's Measure H was passed by voters in the election.

The city council voted five to two, with Bennett against, in favor of repealing legislation that prevented organized groups from donating money to candidates. Bennett announced on August 25, 1997, that he would push for a ballot initiative to the 1998 ballot to prohibit organized groups from donating to candidates. However, he later stated that a proposition was unnecessary after the city council voted to require PACs to report all contributions above $25.

During his campaign for a seat on the board of supervisors in the 2000 election he limited individual campaign donations to his campaign to $500.

Ventura County had legislation passed in 1991, which limited campaign contributions to $750 during primaries and $250 during general elections and was changed following the passage of a state law in 1996, but when the state law was found unconstitutional the county's law was invalidated too. Bennett proposed legislation while serving on the board of supervisors to create an eleven-member ethics panel, with all members of the board of supervisors, the district attorney, sheriff, assessor, auditor-controller, treasurer-tax collector, and county clerk-recorder serving on the panel, to enforce the legislation. Individual donors would be limited to donating $500 per candidate and campaign spending would be limited to $75,000.

In 2003, he and Supervisor Kathy Long proposed legislation that would limit campaign spending for supervisors to $150,000 and limit spending for countywide officials to $500,000. Their legislation also limited donations to $600 who accepted campaign spending limits while the limit would be $300 for those who did not. The legislation was approved by the board of supervisors by a vote of four to one.

Economics
Bennett stated that "no way would I support cutting the police budget" during discussion on the city budget and he stated that he was comfortable cutting $100,000 from other areas of the budget. In 2001, Bennett gave support to and voted for increasing the minimum wage to $8 per hour with medical benefits or $10 per hour without medical benefits. Bennett called for the board of supervisors to pass a resolution in support of prohibiting new federal leasing for offshore oil and gas drilling.