[Mr. Supernaw statement] First, I'd like to say that two years ago I ran for City Council, in part, to save the taxpayers of Long Beach the cost of a special election. Unfortunately, we are now faced with that scenario. Not only will we have to spend $180,000 for the election, but the new 4th district representative will only serve one year. That is an incredible burden for taxpayers, and I don't believe the City Charter provides any alternaitve.

If we do have a special election in April, I believe voters would support my candidacy. In the June 2012 runoff election, I beat the incumbent in the eastern half of the 4th district by 40 votes. Many questioned the voting results in the western half of the district at the time, and if we can get those isssues resolved, I would certainly consider running.

Finally, an independent, grassroots campaign requires supporters to work at getting the candidate elected. There is no "special interest" money for expensive mailers and ads. Support from campaign volunteers will really be the deciding factor on both my becoming a candidate and the election outcome.

[update] In response to an inquiry from LBREPORT.com, City Clerk Larry Herrera says the estimated cost of a special election to fill the 4th Council seat vacated nearly two years early by now Assemblyman-elect Patrick O'Donnell is between $160,000 and $180,000. [end update]

On June 18, 2012 LBREPORT.com reported the story below based entirely on publicly available records:

[LBREPORT.com archival coverage]

(June 18, 2012) -- ...In the runoff, incumbent Patrick O'Donnell prevailed over challenger Daryl Supernaw by a 13% margin district wide. O'Donnell finished second in traditionally higher turnout eastern/Los Altos precincts but overcame this with a large number of ballots cast from traditionally lower-turnout western precincts.

In some western precincts, the number of ballots cast for O'Donnell was roughly several hundred percent higher than the votes O'Donnell received in the April initial election, a write-in for O'Donnell, in which three candidates each finished with roughly a third of the votes in the following order: Supernaw, O'Donnell and Watkins.

In the June runoff:

• Ten of the 4th Council district's thirty precincts in June were east of Clark Avenue. The average voter turnout for these ten precincts was 36% compared to 14% for the 4th district's other twenty precincts and more than half (53%) of the 4th district's total votes cast on June 5th came from these ten precincts. Mr. Supernaw received the majority of these votes.

• Mr. Supernaw prevailed in the two precincts that "bookend" the Los Altos area. At the eastern end in precinct 3850052A (bordered by the 405 Freeway, Studebaker, Atherton & Palo Verde), Supernaw received 171 votes to O’Donnell's 116.

• At the western end in the Stearns Park end, in precinct 3850147A (bordered by Willow, Clark, Stearns & Lakewood) Supernaw received 143 votes to O’Donnell’s 114.

• Mr. Supernaw also prevailed in central Los Altos precinct 3850153A (202 to 188) which includes Whaley Park, Minnie Gant elementary, the Los Altos Center and the Los Altos Library where Councilman ODonnell holds his monthly Chat With Pat meetings.

So how did incumbent O'Donnell prevail overall?

O'Donnell carried nearly every precinct in the southwestern portion of the 4th Council district. It's not possible to make precise comparisons based on precinct numbers alone because precinct boundaries were changed slightly for the Countywide election: 24 precincts in April were split into 30 precincts for the June election. Thus, the percentage comparisons that follow are approximate within the rough ranges indicated

• At the western end of the 4th district, in precinct 3850611A (bordered by 15th St., Temple/Molino, Anaheim & Gardenia) Supernaw increased his ballot total by roughly 211% while O’Donnell's ballot count went from 12 to 100 for a roughly 833% increase.

• To the north in precinct 3850091A (bordered by PCH, Junipero, 15th St. & Gardenia), Supernaw's votes decreased to roughly 64% of April's total while O’Donnell's votes increased by roughly 413%.

• At the eastern end, in precinct 3850625 (bordered by Atherton, Clark, PCH & Ximeno), Supernaw increased his April vote count by roughly 135% while O’Donnell's ballot total increased by roughly 395%, giving him 76 votes over Supernaw.

Similar outcomes occurred in most of the twenty precincts at the western end of the 4th Council district and produced the 690 vote differential for O'Donnell...

Others now mentioned as possible 4th Council district special election candidates include John Watkins (finished third to Supernaw and O'Donnell in April 2012) and Herlinda Chico (pursued 4th dist. Council seat for 2012 but withdrew when O'Donnell dropped his 2012 Assembly bid and Ms. Chico endorsed O'Donnell's 2012 Council bid.)

In the 2012 4th district election cycle, the LB JOBS PAC (supporters included a number of LB-area Chamber of Commerce figures) endorsed Mr. Watkins and sought to derail O'Donnell's Council candidacy by predicting that he would seek the Assembly seat in 2014, and if he won [as he did] LB taxpayers would pay a six figure sum for a special election to fill the uncompleted final two years of his Council term.

Assembly-candidate O'Donnell's campaign website listed Mr. Watkins and Ms. Chico as endorsing O'Donnell's 2014 Assembly run [which created the current Council vacancy.]

Developing.