HOLMES BEACH – Dan Diggins defeated David Zaccagnino in the Holmes Beach mayor’s race that concluded on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
According to the unofficial election results posted at the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections website as of Wednesday, Nov. 4, Diggins received 829 votes (52.2%) and Zaccagnino received 759 votes (47.8%). Diggins won the race by 70 votes, and a total of 1,588 votes were cast in the mayor’s race.
Incumbent City Commissioner Carol Whitmore and first-time candidate Mark Hebden won the two commission seats to be decided by this year’s election.
According to the unofficial results, Whitmore received 866 votes (35.29%), Hebden received 832 votes (33.90%) and first-time candidate John Azzata received 756 votes (30.81%).
Holmes Beach voters were allowed to vote for two city commission candidates, but some voters “bullet-voted” and only voted for their most preferred commission candidate. A total of 2,454 votes were cast in the city commission race.
Diggins will serve a two-year term as Holmes Beach’s next mayor and will succeed four-term Mayor Judy Titsworth, who did not seek reelection. Whitmore and Hebden will serve two-year city commission terms on the commission that also includes Steve Oelfke, Jessica Patel and Terry Schaefer, whose seats will be up for election in 2027.
Manatee County’s final election results will be certified on Friday, Nov. 13, according to Assistant Supervisor of Elections Sharon Stief. Diggins, Whitmore and Hebden will be sworn in by City Clerk Marina Hovious on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 9 a.m.
Alley vacated
Holmes Beach voters approved a request to vacate an unused, city-owned beachfront alley at 2902 Avenue E, with 999 voters (65.12%) supporting the request to vacate the alley and 535 voters (34.88%) opposing the request.
The voter approval means the city will vacate the unpaved, sand-covered alley to Ben ten Haaf, who plans to build two beachfront homes on the two currently undeveloped properties that are separated by the city alley.
Diggins comments
On election night, Diggins and his supporters gathered at Fifty Three Fifty The PourHouse and awaited the results that started to become known shortly after 7 p.m., when the early voting and vote-by-mail results were posted at the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections website. A short time later, the vote totals that included the in-person ballots cast that day at the Island Branch Library were released, and the winner of the mayor’s race was essentially known by 7:30 p.m.
When speaking to his gathered supporters a short time later, Diggins said, “Thank you so much for all the work that you guys have done for me. I really appreciate it.”
He thanked Holmes Beach resident Renee Ferguson for serving as his campaign manager.
“She taught me a lot about campaigning, which I knew absolutely nothing about,” said Diggins, a twice-elected, two-term city commissioner.
He then asked Ferguson to speak.
“I don’t think I’ve ever worked with anyone that was so calm, so morally correct, so easy to work with and compromising,” Ferguson said.
“He was so confident. I watched him on that (city commission) dais with his demeanor and we need that now. We need to heal things now. We need to come together as a community and as a city and support each other. And I think we can do that now,” she said.
“I think we have a commission and a mayor that can actually cohesively work well together.
“And I think that Dan’s going to allow the commission to actually be a commission, which I think is something we really, really need. I’m very proud that he won. I really and truly am,” she said.
Regarding Hebden’s victory, Ferguson said, “And I’m so proud that Mark won.”
Diggins also thanked his two-member technical team, Chris and Hunter, for setting up and maintaining his campaign website.
“I invited them here tonight because they really helped me a lot,” Diggins said, noting that they set up Hebden’s campaign website too.
When speaking to The Sun after he addressed his supporters, Diggins said, “I feel pretty good tonight. It was a good campaign. We fought hard. I look forward to taking the city into the next chapter. I think we’ll do some good things in the future.”
When asked about his initial to-do list, Diggins said, “I want to set up some citizen advisory groups so I can have the people in this city tell us what is important to them. There’s a lot of talent on this Island – people here have been very successful in other parts of their life and we should tap into that collective wisdom.”
Zaccagnino comments
Zaccagnino and his supporters gathered at the Freckled Fin Irish Pub to await the election results.
When speaking to The Sun an hour or so after the results were known, Zaccagnino said, “I want to thank all my supporters and everybody that helped me run a nice race. And I congratulate Dan and I wish the best for Holmes Beach and Holmes Beach residents to keep the old Island feel and protect our Island living.”
When asked if he might consider running for a city commission seat next year, Zaccagnino, a former city commissioner, said, “I don’t know. I’m gonna go to Lake Como in Italy and gather my thoughts. And I love my life, I love my kids and I love Holmes Beach, so you never know.”
Whitmore comments
Whitmore awaited the election results at her Holmes Beach home.
When contacted by phone the following day, she said, “I’m excited that the voters saw that I have worked hard over the last two years to try to bring a little more transparency to our city government, and to bring the public in more. And that’s going to be my mission 2.0 during my next two years.
“I think we can do better and let our public become more involved than they have ever been. I’m not going to have them find out something happened without us, the commission, even knowing about it, which happened quite a bit over the last few years,” Whitmore said.
“Dan and I have a good relationship and I think Dan will have a different management style. I prefer openness. I’ve been successful because I’ve been open with the public – whether they like my decisions or not at least I was open with them – and I didn’t just spring things on them. I don’t think Dan’s going to do that and I think he’ll do a good job,” Whitmore said.
Holmes Beach has a strong mayor form of government in which the mayor doesn’t vote. Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Law allows the nonvoting mayor to meet privately and communicate privately with individual commissioners, as long as the mayor doesn’t act as a conduit by sharing a commissioner’s views with any of the other commissioners.
“I have pet projects that you’ll hear about soon that I’m going to bring up to Dan once he’s sworn in. I’m going to ask to meet with him and let him know where I stand on some issues, since I’ve never been able to talk about city issues because of the Sunshine Law,” Whitmore said.
Hebden comments
Hebden planned to join Diggins at the PourHouse to await the election results, but an unforeseen circumstance caused him to miss that gathering.
When speaking to The Sun the following day, Hebden said, “I am both humbled and encouraged to earn the trust of residents. I’m looking forward to working together with the commissioners and our new mayor to proactively address stormwater and traffic issues and engaging our residents in developing better solutions that benefit our community.”
Holmes Beach turnout
Countywide, the voter turnout rate was 63.73%, with 183,474 of the county’s 287,882 eligible voters casting ballots.
At 76.9%, the Holmes Beach precinct, Precinct 305, had the highest turnout rate of Manatee County’s 71 precincts, with 1,660 of Holmes Beach’s 2,158 eligible voters casting ballots.
Unopposed Island races
Running unopposed in Anna Maria, incumbent Mayor Mark Short won another two-year term in office. Running unopposed, incumbent city Commissioners Chris Arendt and Gary McMullen also claimed additional two-year terms in office.
Running unopposed in Bradenton Beach, Scott Bear claimed another two-year term as the Ward 2 city commissioner. The Ward 3 seat to be vacated by longtime Commissioner Ralph Cole will be filled by commission appointment.
