# Member of the State Assembly, District 38 Compare records and positions simply between Steve Bennett or Michael MacDonald for Member of the State Assembly, District 38 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: California Legislature - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-38 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 24, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Steve Bennett** — Member of the Assembly, 38th District · Democratic · Incumbent - **Michael MacDonald** — City Clerk · Democratic Assemblymember Steve Bennett took 69.4% of the June 2 vote and fellow Democrat Michael MacDonald took 30.6%, so November is a contest between two members of the same party. The district covers Ventura County and part of Santa Barbara County. The winner holds one of 80 Assembly seats for a two-year term, inside a 12-year lifetime cap on service in Sacramento. An Assemblymember authors bills, sits on the policy committees that decide which bills advance, and argues for the district's share of the annual state budget. Seniority compounds: a member several terms in chairs committees and shapes which bills reach a floor vote at all. With two Democrats on the ballot, party is not the axis. One has a substantial enacted record and institutional funding; the other is running a mostly individually funded campaign against a member of their own party. Weigh accumulated legislative output against whatever case the challenger is making for replacing it. ## Steve Bennett Steve Bennett is a Brown University graduate who taught high school economics and history for more than 20 years. He was elected to the Ventura City Council in 1993, where he co-authored the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) initiatives (assembly website). SOAR still requires a public vote before farmland outside city limits can be rezoned for development. Bennett served as a Ventura County supervisor from 2000 to 2020, working on farmworker services and the county's first homeless shelter. He was elected to the Assembly in 2020 (assembly website). Bennett's signature bill this term responds directly to the 2024 Mountain Fire. That fire burned nearly 20,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of structures in Ventura County after a smaller vegetation fire reignited from lingering hot debris. His AB 2075, sponsored by Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko, aims to strengthen wildfire-prevention law. It has passed both houses of the Legislature and, as of this writing, is enrolled and awaiting the governor's signature (assembly website; California Legislature bill history). Bennett chairs the Assembly's Budget Subcommittee on Climate Crisis, Resources, Energy, and Transportation. He also chairs its Select Committee on Building a Zero-Carbon Hydrogen Economy (assembly website). His current priorities include home-hardening and wildfire preparedness, water and drought policy, and defending the Coastal Act of 1976 (assembly website). **Strengths:** Three decades of elected office in Ventura County, including growth-control laws still in effect, and a wildfire bill now awaiting the governor's signature. **Trade-offs:** Long incumbency means an established record on this ballot, not a fresh case for what changes with another term. **Keep in mind:** He drew a challenger from his own party rather than a Republican, which usually signals a disagreement inside the district's own coalition. ## Michael MacDonald Michael MacDonald serves as Ventura's city clerk, overseeing elections, public records and government transparency (campaign site). Earlier in their career they were a senior advisor to Regional Government Services, consulting with California cities on transparency. They also worked as office manager to former state Senator Fran Pavley and as a district representative for Senators Hannah-Beth Jackson and Scott Wiener (campaign site). They were an assistant city clerk in Berkeley and Port Hueneme and chaired Oakland's Public Ethics Commission. Their family's restaurant trade traces to Italian immigrant grandparents, and they worked in it while putting themselves through Cal State Channel Islands (campaign site). MacDonald frames their campaign around the state's affordability crisis, saying "Michael is running because we don't have to manage decline — we can change it" (campaign site). MacDonald's site says they have "watched friends get priced out" and "felt the same rising costs" that other Californians face (campaign site). They are challenging Assemblymember Steve Bennett, a fellow Democrat, rather than seeking an open seat. MacDonald's platform centers on expanding housing supply, including mid-range options like townhomes and workforce housing, through faster permitting and lower construction costs (campaign site). They also back insurance reform and workforce development, including a "California Resilient Workforce" for wildfire prevention and infrastructure jobs (campaign site). They say government should be judged by outcomes, "not by the number of bills passed" (campaign site). **Strengths:** A career built entirely inside local government, including running elections and public records for a mid-sized California city. **Trade-offs:** No campaign finance record to speak of and no experience holding elected office, only appointed and staff roles. **Keep in mind:** MacDonald is running against a fellow Democrat rather than in an open seat; coverage of that choice was limited to their own campaign material. ## Record in office Steve Bennett (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 35 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 12 of them signed into law. Michael MacDonald has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Bennett — AB 1873 (2026): County of Ventura: fire suppression: backup energy source. Bennett — AB 2458 (2026): Energy: appliance standards and cost-effective measures. Bennett — AB 2125 (2026): Groundwater basin adjudication: notice. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Steve Bennett** - Primary: $534,262 raised (Small donors: $1,683; Individuals: $85,379; PACs & committees: $299,200; Businesses & other orgs: $148,000) - November: $53,176 raised (Individuals: $34,676; PACs & committees: $9,500; Businesses & other orgs: $9,000) - **Michael MacDonald** - Primary: $63,373 raised (Small donors: $3,462; Individuals: $41,952; PACs & committees: $5,900; Self-funding: $11,259) - November: $1,672 raised (Individuals: $1,672) Figures are CA Form 460 filings through June 30, 2026 by committees controlled by each candidate, and can include transfers from a candidate's earlier committees. Semi-annual reports covering January–June 2026 were due July 31, 2026, so some totals lag a period behind. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-09-21. Total is itemized (Schedule A) contributions and self-funding loans dated after the June 2, 2026 primary, through June 30, 2026 — small-dollar unitemized (under $100) contributions aren't independently dated in Cal-Access's raw export, so they aren't reflected here and this may undercount true small-donor activity since the primary. This also doesn't include money reported only on 24-hour late-contribution reports (Form 497) that haven't yet appeared in a periodic Form 460 filing. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-08-30. ## Review notes - Michael MacDonald for Assembly and Michael MacDonald for Assembly may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)](https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results/primary-election-june-2-2026/statement-vote) 2. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [California State Assembly — Steve Bennett biography (career background, prior local offices)](https://a38.asmdc.org/biography) 4. [California State Assembly — Steve Bennett official website newsroom (AB 2075 origin, wildfire and hydrogen priorities)](https://a38.asmdc.org/) 5. [California Legislature — AB 2075 bill history (status: enrolled and presented to the Governor)](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2075) 6. [Michael MacDonald for Assembly — Biography (career background as Ventura city clerk)](https://www.michaelmacdonaldforassembly.com/biography) 7. [Michael MacDonald for Assembly — Issues and policy positions (housing, cost of living, government reform)](https://www.michaelmacdonaldforassembly.com/issues-policy-positions) 8. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 9. [Cal-Access raw data export — California Secretary of State](https://www.sos.ca.gov/campaign-lobbying/helpful-resources/raw-data-campaign-finance-and-lobbying-activity) ## The rest of the ballot Member of the State Assembly, District 38 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Member of the State Assembly, District 38 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-38 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.