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.

[4][5][6][7] Bennett later led the counseling department and worked as assistant principal at Nordhoff High School after leaving the city council.

[10] 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.

[4][20] 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.

[21] 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".

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.

[38][39] 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.

[45] 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.

[47][48] The city council voted five to two, with Bennett against, in favor of repealing legislation that prevented organized groups from donating money to candidates.

[50] However, he later stated that a proposition was unnecessary after the city council voted to require PACs to report all contributions above $25.

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.

[58][59] Bennett called for the board of supervisors to pass a resolution in support of prohibiting new federal leasing for offshore oil and gas drilling.