After Greg Gent announced his resignation as mayor of Kaipara District in November 2017, Smith stood in the by-election to replace him. Smith was successful in the election, held in February 2018, defeating seven other candidates including acting Mayor Peter Wethey, who came second by over 300 votes. Smith took office as Kaipara's sixth mayor on 20 February 2018. Smith promised a "fresh start" for the district, seeking to attract new ratepayers in order to bring down council debt. Smith won re-election overwhelmingly, garnering 5996 votes to Mohowehnua's 418. Despite having faced him in the Mayoral by-election, Smith re-appointed outgoing acting Mayor Peter Wethey as Deputy Mayor after taking office. Following his 2019 re-election, he appointed second-term councillor Anna Curnow as Deputy Mayor to replace Wethey, partly to bring a gender balance to the KDC leadership. In June 2022, Smith announced he would not be standing for re-election as Kaipara District mayor at the
2022 New Zealand local elections, instead choosing to seek the
National Party's nomination for the
New Zealand House of Representatives electorate of
Northland at the
2023 New Zealand general election. At the time the seat was held by
Labour Party MP
Willow-Jean Prime, who narrowly defeated sitting National MP
Matt King by 163 votes in the landslide to Labour that occurred at the
2020 New Zealand general election.
Grant McCallum was selected as National candidate and won the seat in 2023. Smith is standing again for Kaipara Mayor in the 2025 election. His campaign slogan is a Better Kaipara Again. ==References==