TAVARES, Fla. – Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker, who ended up having to mount a write-in campaign for reelection, has lost his seat to challenger Mark Jordan.
The unofficial results from the Lake County Supervisor of Elections website shows Jordan defeated Baker, listed as “Write-In,” 76.32% to 23.68%.
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“We lost the race for property appraiser. It appears it’s sort of important to actually have your name on the ballot,” Baker posted Wednesday on his Facebook page.
Baker told News 6 on Friday that he believes property owners will still get the same level of service from the office with its current staff in place.
“These are not political hirings, these are longtime professionals. I’m turning over a great office,” Baker said. “I feel very good that I’m leaving this office in great shape.”
[RELATED: What to know about the Lake County property appraiser race]
The property appraiser is responsible for maintaining records of property sales and ownership, conducting annual assessments of property values and keeping track of tax exemptions.
Baker, a Republican and former state legislator, has been property appraiser since 2012.
When Baker ran for reelection in 2016, he was unopposed. He was also unopposed in 2020, so instead of putting his name on the ballot, Baker waited until the last moment to qualify and seeing he had no opponent, he ran as a write-in candidate and was unopposed. By doing that, Baker was able to save the nearly $11,000 qualifying fee.
Baker tried to do this again in 2024, waiting until the last day of qualifying and, believing he had no opponents, ran as a write-in candidate instead. This time, however, opponent Mark Jordan, who had already qualified to run for North Lake County Hospital District, switched to running for property appraiser.
That meant Jordan, also a Republican, would be the only candidate on the ballot, while Baker would be represented by a line, and voters would have to write Baker’s name in accurately.
Baker sued to have Jordan thrown off the ballot, claiming Jordan failed to properly qualify for the race, saying he didn’t withdraw first from the hospital board race, timestamps showed his paperwork was filed after the noon qualifying deadline on June 14 and failed to pay the candidate qualifying fee from an account designated for the property appraiser race.
But a judge sided with Jordan, saying Florida law did not require any of those things. An appeals court upheld the decision.
According to court documents from Baker’s lawsuit, Mark Jordan and his brother, David Jordan, who is Lake County tax collector, confirmed they knew that Baker would try to run as a write-in candidate for reelection if he didn’t think he had an opponent.
Baker said he even though he had to work harder to campaign because of the situation, he made sure to keep his staff completely separate from his campaign to protect them.
“My office runs well. We have great staff in place, and they will continue to do their job. We have statutory requirements in place,” Baker said. “It’s just me packing my bags and that’s it.”
His hope is that Mark Jordan leaves the office and its staff as it is. We reached out to Jordan on Friday for comment and are waiting to hear back.
As for Baker, he says he will back to his gun shop once his term is up in January. He also says other property appraisers around the state have reached out to him, so he might advise some appraisers as they take on their new roles.
He may also try to run for office again in four years.
“I don’t think I’ll have much trouble as long as my name is on the ballot,” he laughed.
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