COUNTYWIDE : Senior Legislature Candidates Sought

The 1992 elections may be over for most Americans, but the political season for Ventura County senior citizens is just getting started.

The filing period for county residents who want to run for the California Senior Legislature will remain open until 5 p.m. Dec. 23, county officials said.

Ventura County sends two representatives to the Assembly and one to the Senate of the Senior Legislature, which was established in 1981 to help develop new state laws and policies for senior citizens.

To become candidates for the Legislature, which holds one four-day session in Sacramento each year, residents must be registered voters 60 years of age or older who have gathered at least 50 nominating signatures from their peers, said Joann Wilson, program assistant for the Ventura County Area Agency on Aging.

The next election for the three Ventura County seats, which have two-year terms, will be held March 9 at senior citizen centers and other locations throughout the county, Wilson said.

About 2,000 of the county’s senior citizens voted in the last election in 1991, she said.

Because none of Ventura County’s three incumbents are expected to run for reelection, the 1993 race should be wide open, said Lee Strohbehn, an Ojai resident who represents Ventura County in the Senior Legislature’s Assembly.

The other senior legislators from Ventura County are Ventura resident Maxine Culp in the Assembly and Camarillo resident Joe Gaynes in the Senate, Wilson said.

Strohbehn said he is proud of the Senior Legislature’s record of having about half of its proposed legislation passed by state lawmakers. The legislation has covered issues ranging from nursing-home reforms to public transportation.

For information, call Wilson at 652-7560.