Jen Ahearn-Koch

Ahearn-Koch is currently serving her fifth year as an at-large Sarasota City Commissioner. Her top three issues are preserving the environment, ensuring the right of citizens to peaceful enjoyment of their homes, and improving traffic flow and safety. Recently she has turned her attention to inclusive zoning as a possible way to boost affordable housing.

Dan Lobeck

Lobeck, a local attorney specializing in condo association law, is running because he sees no candidates “willing to stand up to the development interests who would turn this City into something less than the special place so many now seek to call home.”

Debbie Trice

Trice has been president of the Rosemary District Neighborhood Association for the past two years and served on the Sarasota County Charter Review Board. As commissioner, she wants to restore balance and collaboration to city decision-making, bring creative problem-solving to the community while addressing transportation, environment, and quality-of-life issues that are essential to sustaining a livable community.

Smith served for many years on the Siesta Key Village Association Board of Directors and was also part of the leadership of Save Our Siesta Sand 2 (SOSS2). Traffic, water quality and affordable housing are some of the issues he said he wants to focus on as a commissioner. In 2010, Smith ran an unsuccessful campaign against Nora Patterson, an incumbent, in the Republican primary for County Commission District 4.