Siesta resident serving first term on County Commission

This week, District 2 County Commissioner Mark Smith, who lives on Siesta Key, filed for re-election in 2026, he told The Sarasota News Leader on Jan. 14.
In August 2022, Smith won the Republican Primary for the District 2 race. That led to his campaigning against former Sarasota mayor and city Commissioner Fredd “Glossie” Atkins of the Newtown community, who won the Democratic Primary that year. Smith is a Republican.
In the November 2022 General Election, Smith defeated Atkins by 373 votes.
Altogether, 37,923 votes were cast for the District 2 candidates on Nov. 8, 2022, the official results show.
In an email response to the News Leader following his victory Smith wrote, “Extremely grateful for all the non-Republican voters that believed I was the best candidate to get things done. I couldn’t have won without them.”
When he announced his decision to run for County Commission in 2022, Smith told the News Leader that Republican Party leaders had encouraged him to become a candidate after then-District 2 Commissioner Christian Ziegler chose not to seek a second term on the board. At the time, Ziegler was vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida and vying to serve as chair.
Since he joined the board, Smith often has cast votes in support of neighborhood residents opposed to applications for developments that they have testified as being inconsistent with their environs. He also has championed environmental protection, especially in hearings regarding construction on Siesta Key that would be well west of the county’s Gulf Beach Setback Line (GBSL). That figurative “line in the sand” was established in 1979 to protect dunes and other beach habitat which, in turn, protect inland structures from storm surge and other flooding events.
On multiple occasions during his first two years on the County Commission, Smith cast the solitary “No” vote on a variety of issues.
Smith told the News Leader on Jan. 14 that he decided to go ahead and file for the 2026 race because people had been asking whether he planned to seek another term. In fact, he noted, one individual had commented to him, “I heard you weren’t going to run for re-election.”
It has not been uncommon for County Commission candidates to file for election or re-election well before the start of the year when the election will be held. For example, Teresa Mast of Sarasota, who won the District 1 seat in November 2024, filed for the race on Jan 3, 2023. Incumbent District 5 Commissioner Ron Cutsinger filed on Aug. 23, 2023 to keep his seat.
Qualifying for a County Commission seat takes place during a specific, state-designated week in June of the election year.