Feb 2012: Council <nobr>Re-Election</nobr> Candidate O'Donnell To <i>LB Business Journal</i>: Q: You're Not Going To Run For Ass'y In Two Years? A: Correct. Q: No Matter What? A: Correct...

LBREPORT.com publisher's note: The Long Beach BusinessJournal (www.lbbusinessjournal.com) got the story below...that we didn't get. In February 2012, LBBJ Publisher George Economides and Senior Writer Tiffany Rider interviewed then-write-in Council re-election candidate Patrick O'Donnell for a Long Beach Business Journal story slugged Feb. 28, 2012 that remains available online by clicking here.

LBREPORT.com thanks the Business Journal for allowing us to link to its story and for sharing with us (at our request) a copy of the sound clip of Councilman O'Donnell's response to the LBBJ's question on the matter below...which was timely then and timely now.

(Jan. 4, 2013, 1:45 p.m.) -- Councilman Patrick O'Donnell, who has quietly formed an "O'Donnell for Assembly 2014," told the Long Beach Business Journal in February 2012 that if reelected to a four-year City Council term in 2012 he wouldn't run for Assembly in 2014.

The interview with Long Beach Business Journal Publisher George Economides and Senior Writer Tiffany Rider included the following exchange:

Mr. Economides / LBBJ: If you win the reelection, will you commit to a full four-year term?
Councilman O'Donnell: If you run for four, you serve four.
LBBJ: So, you're not going to run for Assembly in two years?
O'Donnell: Correct.
LBBJ: No matter what?
O'Donnell: Correct. If you run for four, you serve four.

To hear a sound clip of the exchange (which the Business Journal provided to LBREPORT.com at our request), click here.

The Business Journal's interview also included an exchange on the issue of term limits, then-timely as Councilman O'Donnell was seeking a third term via the LB ordinance's write-in procedure. During this period, the LB JOBS PAC (which independently supported John Watkins in the 4th dist. Council race] opposed O'Donnell's write-in bid, citing the cost of a special election if he were elected to Sacramento two years into his four year Council term.

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, Councilman O'Donnell told us on Jan. 2, 2013 that he hasn't made any candidacy announcement regarding the 2014 Assembly race, isn't saying that he is running and isn't saying he isn't running and says that he transferred money to the new Committee from his 2012 Council re-election campaign in compliance wtih a year-end deadline for closing out his Council reelection committee.

"Right now, my focus is very simple. I'm a teacher in the classroom by day, and a part time Councilmember by day and night," Councilman O'Donnell said.

Details of exactly how much was transferred to the O'Donnell for Assembly 2014 from O'Donnell's 2012 Council Committee weren't immediately available; as of Jan. 3, that sum wasn't available on the Secretary of State's website.

As of June 30, 2012, the O'Donnell for City Council 2012 Committee reported having cash on hand of $15,609 with outstanding expenses of $16,583 (including a $10,000 loan from O'Donnell to his Council reelection Committee).

Information regarding sums collected by O'Donnell's aborted 2012 Assembly campaign is due for filing by the end of January 2013.