SOAR Backer May Run for Supervisor

Former Ventura City Councilman Steve Bennett, one of the chief architects of the SOAR growth-control initiatives, is expected to announce next week that he will run for the county Board of Supervisors in 2000.

Although he would not confirm his decision Thursday, Bennett has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday, when he “will announce his intentions regarding the elections next year.”

Supervisor Susan Lacey, who represents the district that includes Ventura and most of the Ojai Valley, has said she will not seek a sixth term.

Bennett, who shares Lacey’s Democratic leanings and her environmental and slow-growth advocacy, has been mentioned as a possible candidate to succeed Lacey since he left the Ventura City Council in 1997 after one term. Supervisor John Flynn said he has recently been asked “office management questions” by Bennett.

Other possible candidates for the 1st Supervisorial District include Ventura Councilman Jim Monahan and former Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures.

Monahan, who lost to Lacey in 1996, said Thursday he is leaning toward trying again but is still shoring up support. Measures said she too is not ready to make a decision.

A Bennett candidacy could encourage or discourage still more candidates from entering the race before the Nov. 15 filing deadline.

“There may be some candidates that come forward just because Steve Bennett is running, and there may be some candidates that may not be running [because Bennett is],” Ventura Deputy Mayor Ray Di Guilio said.

In particular, he said, one or more anti-SOAR candidates could emerge to challenge Bennett, an environmentalist whose leadership in Ventura County’s historic growth-control campaign landed him in Time magazine last month.

“Steve is loved by many, and hated by some,” said Di Guilio, who called Bennett a “very formidable candidate.”

Ventura County’s 4,500-employee union, which has supported Lacey and endorsed Bennett for the City Council, may throw its considerable clout behind him. Union leader Barry Hammitt said he will attend Bennett’s announcement.

For her part, Lacey said Thursday she does not plan to endorse any candidate to succeed her, pointing out that she will not end her two decades on the Board of Supervisors for nearly another two years.

“Frankly I think the people of the district need to pick the next supervisor, and I trust them to do that,” Lacey said.

The primary election for Lacey’s seat, which includes the Ojai Valley--but not Ojai itself--Ventura and coastal portions of Oxnard, is scheduled for March 7, 2000.

When Bennett, a history teacher and counselor at Nordhoff High School in Ojai, left the Ventura council, he did not rule out seeking elective office again.

“My sense is that public servants ought to serve, then withdraw, and kind of move back and forth,” Bennett said in 1997. “It helps keep you from becoming a career politician.”