Opposites in Supervisorial Race Hope to Attract Voters

One candidate is described by his opponent as a pawn of big-money interests, part of an “old boys’ network.” The other is branded as an “environmental extremist” who is beholden to county unions.

Indeed, few local races in November offer such a stark choice of candidates than the battle between Steve Bennett and Jim Monahan for a Ventura County supervisor’s seat.

The two are virtual opposites on every front.

Bennett, 49, is an Ivy League graduate, an educator and the author of successful laws to limit growth and cap local campaign spending. He says the county is at a turning point and can either go the way of powerful special interests or follow his style of grass-roots politics.

Monahan, 65, owns and operates a local welding company and has served on the Ventura City Council for 23 years. He is unabashedly pro-business and a consummate politician, inspiring an intense loyalty among supporters. Monahan says the county needs to get its fiscal house in order and share in the national economic revival that he says it is missing.

The two have known each other for years, having served together on the Ventura City Council from 1992 to 1996.

Bennett says Monahan doesn’t work hard enough, never bothers to study the issues and will do or say anything to get votes.

“People don’t trust his abilities, they don’t trust his work ethic,” Bennett said. “There is no one I know of who represents the old boys’ network like Monahan.”

Monahan counters by calling his opponent an extreme liberal, a man in the back pocket of local unions. Of himself, Monahan said his two decades in city government have yielded a dedicated following built on trust.

“I’ve been elected six times and Steve’s been elected once,” said Monahan, who ran unsuccessfully for county supervisor in 1996.

As for a “good old boys’ network,” Monahan says he is simply a local resident with lots of friends throughout the community.

“I have deep political roots in this county. I went to school with these people. I can’t go anywhere without people knowing me,” he said. “Steve doesn’t have that. I love this county more than Steve could ever love it.”

The Ventura-based 1st District, which consists of 80,000 voters, also includes Ojai and a tiny portion of Oxnard. It has been represented since 1980 by retiring Supervisor Susan Lacey, a liberal Democrat.

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Aside from growth and environmental issues, Bennett often speaks out on the corrosive influence of special-interest money in politics.

During his time on the Ventura City Council, Bennett sponsored a local ordinance that limited campaign contributions to city candidates at $100 per donor. If elected to the board, Bennett said he will push for a similar law for county races.

In the supervisorial race, Bennett has refused to accept individual contributions over $500 in the general election. As of July 31, he had raised $129,540, including $500 contributions from the county firefighters’ union and the deputy sheriff’s association. He also received $500 from Yvon Chouinard, owner of Patagonia Co. and a noted environmental activist.

Unlike his opponent, Monahan has no self-imposed contribution limits. He collected $177,920 during the last campaign finance reporting period, including more than $11,000 from Orange and Los Angeles county developers and business interests. He also received $2,200 from Christian conservative radio station owner Ed Atsinger III. Oltman’s Construction of Ventura contributed $3,000, and Glenda and John Hammer, also builders, donated $4,000.

These were all dwarfed by the $20,000 dropped on the Monahan campaign by retired thrift store magnate Ray Ellison of Ventura.

Asked why he donated so much, Ellison quipped, “Because Bennett is a liberal nutso!”

Bennett dismisses such remarks as silly.

“My positions don’t break cleanly between liberal and conservative,” he said. “The question is where are we going to grow and how are we going to grow?”

Growth and development issues are at the heart of the nonpartisan contest.

Bennett has been successful in taking his growth-control initiatives directly to voters. The SOAR measures have been adopted in six cities and the unincorporated area of the county. The new laws require voter approval for projects proposed on farmland or open space outside city boundaries.

But Bennett said he supports economic growth within city limits, saying he advocated the expansion of Pacific View Mall in Ventura’s midtown area.

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Of SOAR, Monahan said land-use planning should be done by elected officials and not at the ballot box. He said he worries the county’s strict growth-control laws may force some major businesses to leave.

He said Bennett would be better off pursuing his “pet projects,” such as campaign finance reform and growth control, outside the system rather than as an elected official.

“He didn’t work as a team player on the council,” Monahan said. “He liked to go off on his own direction. He’s promoting his own career. He’s using the supervisor’s race as a springboard for higher office.”

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Bennett was born in Indianapolis and graduated from Brown University with a degree in economics. He came to Ventura in 1977 and has spent the past 28 years as a teacher and assistant principal at Nordhoff High School in Ojai. He recently took a leave of absence to devote all his time to the campaign.

“I think the campaign will get dirty, it’s the only way big money interests can win,” he said. “They can’t win on the issues, so they will attack me personally.”

Last week, Bennett accused Monahan’s campaign of recently conducting a professional voter opinion poll that included hostile questions on Bennett’s character. Monahan and his supporters denied the charges.

Bennett said three supporters who participated in the poll were also questioned about Measure O, a controversial countywide initiative that would take $260 million in tobacco money from the county and give it to private area hospitals. The Community Memorial Hospital-sponsored initiative is intended to help private hospitals recoup the cost of providing care to uninsured patients.

Bennett opposes the measure because it excludes Ventura County Medical Center--the largest provider of care to poor patients--from receiving any of the settlement money.

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He said Monahan’s refusal to take a stand on Measure O demonstrates a lack of leadership. Bennett noted that top county Republicans such as Sheriff Bob Brooks and Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury declined to back Monahan, even though they endorsed Republican Rosa Lee Measures in the March primary.

Monahan--who has received more than $4,000 in campaign contributions from Community Memorial officials, doctors and board members--said he has convened a panel of 20 senior citizens to hear arguments on both sides of the issue before making a decision. He has also polled voters over how the tobacco money should be spent.

“I’m not going to circumvent the community,” Monahan said. “I want all the hospitals to share in the tobacco funds, including the county hospital.”

But Monahan’s reluctance to take a stand doesn’t sit well with county union officials, who represent Ventura County Medical Center employees.

“When Monahan doesn’t take positions on things like Measure O, it doesn’t show leadership,” said Barry Hammitt, head of the Service Employees International Union, which supports Bennett and represents 4,500 county workers. “This is someone who will set policy for a $1.8-billion corporation [the county] and affect the lives of more than 800,000 people.”

Monahan says Bennett is under the sway of Hammitt, whose union wields considerable power.

But Hammitt said his union only gave Bennett $500, while noting that Ray Ellison contributed $20,000 to Monahan’s campaign.

“Should I say Monahan is in the back pocket of Ray Ellison? Is he Ray Ellison’s dupe?” Hammitt asked. “The difference is Ellison can throw money at Monahan but we can throw bodies. We will walk precincts, we will do phone banks. We’ll put people in the street for Bennett.”

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Jim Monahan has run American Welding since his father died in 1960. The company, which began in 1928, has gone through economic decline like many other businesses on Ventura Avenue.

Yet it is his experience and abilities as a businessman--to ride out tough times and survive--that Monahan and his supporters tout as his chief selling point.

“There is nothing like real business experience,” Monahan said.

The councilman is a Korean War veteran who grew up on the once thriving but now hardscrabble Ventura Avenue. He has lifelong friends and allies who have supported him through good times and bad.

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One of these is former Republican Congressman Robert Lagomarsino, who donated $500 to Monahan’s campaign.

“He has lots of experience. He knows the area and he’s totally honest and cares what people think,” said Lagomarsino, a Ventura native who has known Monahan for 20 years. “I think Bennett is an environmental extremist and that he is in the back pocket of organized labor.”

Ellison said Monahan’s business background would serve him well as a county supervisor.

“You need to have a businessman to conduct the business of the county,” Ellison said. “Some people are gifted as educators, some are good for business. Business is not Bennett’s world, he’s an educator. He doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what money is all about.”

When he joined the Ventura City Council in 1978, Monahan was part of a pro-business majority that oversaw rapid growth over the next decade. The pro-business faction eventually decreased and was replaced by slow-growth advocates in the early 1990s.

If elected as county supervisor, Monahan said he would push to increase the county chief administrator’s budgetary powers, establish a regional airport at Point Mugu and bring more higher-paying jobs to the county.

He said despite key differences with Bennett, the two are not that far apart on some issues.

“The people I talk to want me to protect agriculture and prevent urban sprawl and make sure any development that happens is done so in an orderly fashion,” Monahan said.

Development will inevitably occur but should be done in a responsible and orderly manner, he said.

“The only place where we are encouraging people to build is downtown,” he said. “Whatever is in the greenbelt should stay. I never voted to take one square foot out of a greenbelt.”

Bennett dismissed the notion that Monahan supports slow-growth policies.

“All politicians characterize themselves as slow-growth during elections,” he said. “Monahan has voted for 10 housing projects. His actions speak louder than the usual preelection slow-growth talk.”

Despite Monahan’s deep roots in the community and history of loyal support, some of his allies acknowledge he has a tough fight on his hands.

“Jim’s a practical guy who knows how to make things work,” said Paul Leavens, a Saticoy farmer. “Bennett is not the businessman’s friend. I think he takes a pro-environment stance that isn’t practical. But Jim has a real battle on his hands.”

County Supervisors, District 1

Two candidates are running for the seat being vacated by Susan Lacey. The district is made up of 80,000 registered voters in Ventura and the Ojai Valley, with Democrats slightly outnumbering Republicans 41% to 39%.

Steve Bennett

Age: 49

Residence: Ventura resident 23 years

Education: Honors degree in economics, Brown University, 1972; master’s in education, Butler University, 1976

Background: Assistant principal and economics teacher at Nordhoff High School, 1980 to present. Ventura City Council, 1993-97. He was an architect of successful SOAR growth-control laws in six cities and the county’s unincorporated areas. Led successful drive to pass Ventura law limiting campaign donations.

Issues: He wants to revisit a policy giving public safety departments annual inflationary increases out of the county’s general fund on top of all proceeds from a half-cent sales tax. He also favors decreasing the influence of money in county elections and has voluntarily limited individual donations to $500 per election. In addition, he supports county firefighters serving as paramedics and wants to centralize control of county budgets in the CAO’s office.

Personal: Married 23 years to Leslie Ogden, a Spanish teacher at Nordhoff High School.

Jim Monahan

Age: 65

Residence: Lifelong Ventura resident

Education: Graduated from Ventura College, 1960

Background: Civic involvement includes Jaycees, American Legion and 1984 Olympics Community Coordinating Committee. County governmental committees include Local Agency Formation Commission, South Coast Area Transit, Ventura County Animal Control and Agricultural Policy Working Group. Veteran of Korean War. Owner of Ventura welding company. Member of the Ventura City Council since 1978, mayor 1987-88. Ran unsuccessfully for supervisor in 1996.

Issues: He wants to beef up chief administrator’s role with greater budgetary control. He also favors exploring the possibility of merging Ventura County Medical Center with Community Memorial Hospital to save on administrative expenses. In addition, he supports improving flood-control efforts around the Ventura River and San Antonio Creek, and protecting public safety budgets from cuts.

Personal: Father of four adult children.