[4] McDonald ran against incumbent 5th District City Councilman Arthur E. Briggs in 1941 and triumphed in the final election.

In 1945 he left his council job and ran for mayor; he came in fourth in the primary vote, after Fletcher Bowron, first; Clifford Clinton, second, and Roger Jessup, third.

[6] After he moved to Downey, California, where he resumed the practice of law and became a board member in the Chamber of Commerce, he ran for the City Council there in 1954.

After much debate, the council adopted a motion offered by McDonald that effectively put an "official business" stamp on an unauthorized trip that Councilman Harold Harby had taken in a city automobile to Montana.

McDonald struck fellow Councilman Carl C. Rasmussen in the face over a dispute about raising city wages.

They shook hands later in the same December 1942 meeting,[11] but McDonald nevertheless issued a press statement saying that: Councilman Rasmussen is well known for bringing personalities into an argument and making insulting remarks.

He accused Mayor Fletcher Bowron's administration of developing a "political slush fund" in finances for the city's Civilian Defense Council.