Michael O'Donnell

Michael O'Donnell II

O'Donnell's father Michael O'Donnell Sr. was senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Wichita.

O'Donnell attended a year at Baptist Bible College, with a B.S.

In another attempt, April 2011, O'Donnell was elected to the Wichita City Council, representing District 4 (southwest Wichita), part of an effort by the Governor to replace more-moderate senators with more-conservative senators.

In the general election on November 6, 2012, O'Donnell beat Democrat Tim Snow by 263 votes, 46.6% to 45.3%, with Libertarian Dave Thomas garnering 8% of the vote.

O'Donnell was Chair of Regulatory Boards and Commissions, a member of Ethics and Elections, and Vice-chair of Education Budget, Legislative Post Audit, and Public Health and Welfare. Fellow Senator Susan Wagle reportedly described O'Donnell as a "team player" and "good communicator." and he was succeeded in the seat by Democrat Lynn Rogers.

Sedgwick County Commission Anticipating that 2nd District Sedgwick County Commissioner Tim Norton a four-term Democratic incumbent would not run for re-election, O'Donnell, in December 2015, moved from County Commission District 3 to District 2, and filed to run for Norton's seat. Norton, however, did run for re-election but in November 2016, O'Donnell defeated Norton for the District 2 seat.

In August, O'Donnell, despite his legal difficulties, won his 2020 Republican primary for County Commission over Cindy Miles and Kathleen Garrison.

November 3, 2020 after a general election race complicated by embarrassing revelations that compelled him to promise to resign if re-elected initial returns indicated O'Donnell narrowly defeating Democrat Sarah Lopez (51%-to-49%, a margin of 576 votes), according to unofficial returns. Lopez, however, announced she would refrain from conceding defeat until the final count was certified. As additional ballots were counted over the next two days, O'Donnell's lead narrowed to just 32 votes (15,852 to 15,820). with an additional 8,000-10,000 ballots yet to be counted throughout the county.

Friday, November 13, 2020, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett advised O'Donnell that his investigation found grounds for initiating ouster proceedings against O'Donnell, and warned O'Donnell that he would begin such proceedings the following week.

Lobbyist

In 2023, O'Donnell registered as a lobbyist with the Kansas Legislature, reportedly representing the interests of various major and minor Kansas-area businesses. His officially reported clients include: Evergy, the state's main electric utility (which also serves parts of Missouri); Steven Enterprises, a large Wichita-area family commercial conglomerate; Phoenix Home Care and Hospice, a medical and counseling service in Illinois, Missouri and Kansas; Paul Treadwell, a major Wichita mobile home investor; and Kansas Natural Remedies, LLC, a hemp producer.

The street address on O’Donnell’s lobbyist registration form was reportedly, originally, a Steven's Genesis Health Club, and his email was a genesishealthclubs.com account. Both were apparently revised to eliminate reference to Genesis, immediately upon online publication of an expose' published in the Wichita Eagle, which cited the connections.

Controversies Wichita City Council residency disqualification In 2007, O'Donnell ran for Wichita City Council, to represent the council district that covered southwest Wichita. O'Donnell claimed to live in the district, at the former parsonage house of a church where his father was pastor. However, O'Donnell was disqualified, and removed from the ballot, when it was discovered that he did not actually live there, nor in Wichita, at all but rather lived where he was registered to vote: in his parents' home in the suburb of Bel Aire, northeast of the city, miles away from the Wichita City Council district he sought to represent.

Wichita property taxes In April 2011, when O'Donnell was elected to the Wichita City Council, In another account, to the Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper, O'Donnell said he had taken "liquor" to a party.

Wichita police later announced it was dropping the investigation, "due to lack of evidence and elements of a crime," and owing to an uncooperative witness refusing further comment.

Alcohol in the church school van In August 2017, allegations arose that O'Donnell took a school van from the Wichita-area Sunrise Christian Academy, to celebrate his 33rd birthday at a Kansas City Royals baseball game, over 200 miles away, where he was reportedly seen with 7 to 10 young men in the van. Earlier, the van had been photographed on August 5 in the stadium parking lot, containing whiskey and a case of beer. Despite the school's assertion that it had not authorized the use, its denial of responsibility, and its policy against drinking alcohol, and its brief online expression of regret over the incident, the school's superintendent declined to acknowledge whether the van had been operated by O'Donnell (who also refused to comment on the incident). O'Donnell's father (a pastor), and his mother (a teacher), were connected with the school which O'Donnell had attended years earlier.

Federal investigation and FBI wiretap On February 14, 2017, it was reported that O'Donnell's cell phone had been wiretapped by the FBI in 2015. It is unclear whether the two incidents are related.

Federal indictments for wire fraud and money laundering On May 4, 2018, while serving as Sedgwick County Commissioner, O'Donnell was indicted on federal charges

The indictment stated that over months in 2015 and 2016, O'Donnell wrote checks from his campaign funds to three of his friends, who cashed them totaling $10,500. Prosecutors charged that O'Donnell's friends did little or no campaign work to earn the payments. Furthermore, the indictment maintains that at least $2,000 from the cashed checks was deposited into O'Donnell's personal account. (note: This indictment only lists 12 counts.)

On March 4, 2019, O'Donnell was acquitted of 21 counts of money laundering. The jury was hung on five charges, including two counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. The decisions on all of the federal charges were based on whether O'Donnell's intent in violating campaign finance rules was "knowingly and intentionally" to defraud the public, rather than just routine campaign finance violations.

County Commission opponent's residency During his 2020 campaign for re-election to the Sedgwick County Commission, O'Donnell raised allegations that his Democratic opponent, Sarah Lopez, was not actually a resident of Sedgwick County District 2, which they both sought to represent.

A former employee of O'Donnell's campaign, KNSS-AM radio host John Whitmer, took the allegation further, filing an official complaint with the county election office Sedgwick County's first official election residency challenge since O'Donnell had been disqualified in the 2007 Wichita City Council race (for not actually residing in Wichita).

A mailer for O'Donnell also altered the photo replacing the chief's image with a burning Los Angeles police car. It was distributed by the state Republican party, with text claiming Black Lives Matter is a "domestic terrorist organization." allegations later debunked.

Whipple, successful in his mayoral bid, began legal proceedings alleging illegal defamation, and in February 2020 represented by the area's former U.S. Attorney, Randy Rathbun brought suit against the person who produced the video, Matthew Colborn (who, at some point in these events, was O'Donnell's campaign manager ), and the group calling itself "Protect Wichita Girls." In the process, Whipple's attorney issued a subpoena for e-mails between O'Donnell and Sedgwick County Republican Party Chair Dalton Glasscock.

The amended lawsuit further alleged that O'Donnell wrote the script for the false ad, Clendenin raised money for promoting it, and Capps attempted to hide their identities by creating a cover organization in New Mexico. and played on local television, showing that the three Republicans had, indeed, conspired largely as alleged, with O'Donnell heard saying: "Like I’ve always learned in politics, it’s always avoid the truth at all expense, right? And just go on the attack." and Wichita's CBS-TV affiliate KWCH-TV. including calls from three of his four fellow County Commissioners (mostly Republican) for O'Donnell to resign, and withdraw from the re-election race.

Similar demands were made by the Sedgwick County Republican Party, which announced on social media, October 24, 2020: "This week’s events bring to a head the malicious and dishonest actions of Michael Capps, Michael O'Donnell, and James Clendenin over the past year. We have stated from the beginning that this type of politics and actions would not be supported by the Sedgwick County Republican Party. We have said, and repeat, that those involved in this video ad campaign and the misinformation campaign are not fit to serve in public office and should step down." On October 31, O'Donnell announced that he was dropping out of the November 3, 2020, Sedgwick County Commission election.

Official actions in response Investigation October 25–26, the Sedgwick County District Attorney announced a joint investigation by his office, the Wichita Police Department and the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department into whether O'Donnell and his co-conspirators could be forced from public office. State statutes prevent the legal ouster of a state official within 180 days before the end of their term in office, or within 120 days after its start with the result that O'Donnell, and co-conspirator Capps (who had also run for re-election but lost in the primary election) were immune from normal ouster proceedings until the end of their terms, and O'Donnell if re-elected in the pending general election would be immune from such proceedings during the first 120 days of his new term.

One of the Commissioners calling for O'Donnell's resignation expressed concern that his resignation or forced departure, so close to the November 3rd general election, might be irrelevant if O'Donnell were to win re-election a particular concern since early voting had already begun before the revelation of the recording of O'Donnell's conspiratorial meeting.

The Council also voted to condemn O'Donnell and Capps for their roles in the plot. and the DA's December revelation that Clendenin was under investigation for misuse of federal CARES Act funds

Sedgwick County Commission response The next day, the Sedgwick County Commission unanimously (O'Donnell abstaining) passed a resolution censuring O'Donnell and formally requesting his resignation. The resolution also said that if O'Donnell were to win re-election in the next week's election, he should decline to serve the new term.

O'Donnell, however, said afterward that he had no plans to step down at that time. He admitted raising money "for billboards" that "was spent on the video" and colluding on a cover-up as documented in the revealed audio recording admitting it was "stupid" and "wrong" and apologized to the Commission and the people of his district. and O'Donnell's fellow commissioner David Dennis ) in the current election responded immediately with an editorial, saying "we're supposed to trust him?" dismissing O'Donnell's "last-gasp maneuver" as "business as usual" for a "disgraced elected official" accusing him of "once again avoiding the truth" and resorting to an "attack" urging the public to "send a loud-and-clear message" by rejecting him at the polls.

Investigation findings November 13, 2020, Sedgwick County District Attorney (DA) Marc Bennett, in conference with O'Donnell and his attorney, advised O'Donnell that #Investigation the DA's investigation had found grounds for ouster proceedings, and warned O'Donnell that they would begin the following week.

Personal life O'Donnell, in his youth, attended Wichita's Sunrise Christian Academy, where his mother was a teacher, and with which his father was affiliated.

His mother, Peggy O'Donnell, served on the Bel Aire City Council. She was elected in the same 2005 election in which her son had unsuccessfully attempted to get elected Bel Aire mayor.