Assemblymember Steve Bennett was elected to the Assembly in November 2020 and currently represents the 37th district which includes the Southern half of Santa Barbara County, as well as the western third of Ventura County. Born and raised in the Midwest, Steve developed a strong sense of community responsibility. After graduating from Brown University with an Honors Degree in Economics, Steve served his community as a high school Economics and American History teacher for over 20 years.
Steve Bennett is an environmental leader who introduced and won passage of local laws to reduce air pollution and fight climate change.
He is dedicated to protecting our quality of life, our local natural areas, open spaces and addressing climate change. He co-authored local SOAR Initiatives protect open spaces from encroaching Los Angeles style urban sprawl, passed laws to stop oil companies and other corporate polluters from contaminating our air, land, drinking water and beaches.
The SOAR initiatives demonstrate Steve’s strategic environmental leadership. Rather than having grassroots citizens play defense on every large urban sprawl proposal, Steve turned the tables on the developers. The SOAR initiatives require a vote of the people before land zoned open space or agriculture can be rezoned for development. For more than 20 years, SOAR has protected Ventura County from mind numbing LA urban sprawl.
Steve has been a champion protecting our beach/river water quality and fresh groundwater aquifers. He ended the ability of oil companies to drill new wells and flare their climate changing gas. He blocked drilling over freshwater aquifers on the Oxnard Plain.