ELECTIONS : 7 Officials Announce They Will Run June 7 : Campaigns: Four appointees are among those who file candidacy papers for public office. Only two in the group are opposed so far.

Seven of Ventura County’s top public officials, including four appointed administrators, kicked off their political campaigns Monday by formally declaring their candidacies for office.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, County Clerk Richard Dean and Treasurer-Tax Collector Harold S. Pittman, all unopposed so far in the June 7 primary election, were among those who gathered in the county’s elections office to take out their nomination papers.

Sheriff Larry Carpenter, Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon, county Supt. of Schools Charles Weis and Assessor Glenn E. Gray also declared their candidacies. All four were appointed to serve out the terms of their predecessors.

So far, only Mahon and Gray are opposed. Mahon will square off against Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton and Ventura accountant Scott Weiss, while Gray will compete against Ventura Councilman Jack Tingstrom.

The final date to file papers to run for office is March 11.

In other county elections, veteran defense attorney James M. Farley said Monday that he will challenge Assistant Dist. Atty. Colleen Toy White in the contest to replace retiring Superior Court Judge Edwin M. Osborne.

Farley, a Ventura attorney with 27 years of experience, said he is more suited than White to the job because of that experience. He said White has served most of her 17 years in the district attorney’s office as an administrator, not as a prosecutor.

“The Superior Court is a trial court,” Farley said. “You should have experience and know what’s going on.”

White, whose decision to run for Osborne’s post prompted several of her colleagues to bow out of the race, could not be reached for comment Monday. She announced her candidacy Friday.

Some of White’s peers said she is unbeatable. Bradbury said last week that there was no one better qualified for the job, while Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew J. Hardy went one step further, saying, “You’d have a better shot at running against Mother Teresa in this county.”

But Farley said he is not deterred.

“First of all, Toy White is not Mother Teresa,” he said. “And, second, I checked with Mother Teresa, and she said I could run.”

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Meanwhile, Bradbury, who is seeking his fifth term as district attorney, said he does not expect anyone to challenge him in the June primary. Bradbury has run unopposed since he was first elected in 1978.

If returned to office, Bradbury said his top priorities will be to restore cuts made to his prosecutorial staff last year and to replace his office’s antiquated computer system.

“The system we have now is from the Dark Ages,” said Bradbury, who oversees nearly 500 employees. “It’s important if we want to be able to operate efficiently through the year 2000 that we have an updated system.”

Carpenter, who is running in his first election for sheriff, said his main focus if elected would be to continue to protect funding for his department.

“The financing of law enforcement has to rank as the No. 1 issue in our lifetime,” Carpenter said. “What I’m going to be working toward is maintaining services on the street.”

Weis, who was appointed last summer, said improving the quality of education in Ventura County schools to better prepare students for the 21st Century and developing new strategies to combat increasing incidents of school violence are among his top priorities.

“We have seen a significant increase in violence,” Weis said. “It’s a problem we have to tackle in the community, not just the schools.”

Resolving the problem, he added, “is going to take a community effort between law enforcement, parents, kids and school officials.”

Times staff writer Dwayne Bray contributed to this story.