South Florida Republican leader is Donald Trump pick for ambassador to Costa Rica

June 30--Costa Rica and Florida are already close. The Central American nation is a popular tourist destination for Floridians -- nonstop flights to San Jose are faster than flights to New York City. And the country is one of Florida's largest international trading partners.

The Central American nation is about to get something else from the Sunshine State: a new U.S. ambassador.

Sharon Day of Fort Lauderdale, a business executive turned Republican Party activist, is President Donald Trump's nominee as the American envoy.

Day isn't a household name in South Florida. But political allies who've worked with her for years in the Republican Party said the appointment makes perfect sense.

Until January, Day spent four years as the No. 2 official at the Republican National Committee, traveling across the country in her role as party co-chairwoman. During the 2016 presidential campaign, she was a tireless and prominent public advocate from Trump, often serving as one of the warm-up speakers at campaign rallies.

After Trump won, a some kind of presidential appointment was widely expected.

Presidents have long awarded political supporters and campaign contributors with ambassadorial gigs in European capitals and exotic locations. The American Foreign Service Association, which represents career foreign service officers, reports that about 30 percent of ambassadors have traditionally been political.

Former President Barack Obama's ambassadors included Mark Gilbert, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser from Boca Raton, who was U.S. envoy to New Zealand and Samoa, and Kirk Wagar of Miami, Obama's Florida finance chairman in 2008 and 2008, who was ambassador to Singapore.

Day's nomination, announced June 14, is among the Trump administration's earliest ambassadorial picks. The American Foreign Service Association website shows he's nominated 23 of 188 ambassadorial posts. Of the 23, seven are career diplomats and 16 political nominations..

Sharon Day of Fort Lauderdale is President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica.

Day is well known in Republican Party circles, where she's spent years boosting the party's candidates at all levels. She started as a volunteer for candidates, was elected as the Broward's state Republican committeewoman, became Florida's national committeewoman, then served as Republican National Committee secretary and co-chairwoman.

During the 2016 presidential election, she was an advocate for Trump on the campaign trail and a critic of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Day is so Republican that for years, she paid to have her car shrink-wrapped, like some city buses, during election seasons to tout the party's candidate at the top of the ticket.

(Anthony Man)

Day, 66, who speaks some Spanish and is taking lessons, has visited Costa Rica in the past. She wasn't available for comment about the nomination. Under longstanding rules imposed by administrations both parties, presidential nominees for jobs that require Senate confirmation aren't allowed to speak to the news media.

"She is absolutely Republican with a capital 'R,'" said Bob Wolfe, founding president of the Lauderdale Beach Republican Club, who added that description didn't go far enough. "Capital 'R' Republican with 18 exclamation points behind it with bold lettering. I can take the word Republican and Sharon Day and superimpose them."

Just how Republican is Day?

-- Her dog, a black-and-white cockapoo that who died in February at age 16, was named "Reagan," after former President Ronald Reagan.

-- At the movies, she explained in a 2012 Sun Sentinel interview, she won't put money into the pockets of people she calls "big-mouthed Hollywood Democrats." When she wants to see one of their films she'll instead pay at the box office for another movie by or starring a Republican so her money benefits them -- then slip in to watch the liberals' picture. If there's no Republican-leaning ticket-buying opportunity, she'll stay home from the multiplex.

-- For years, she paid to have her car shrink-wrapped, like some city buses, during election seasons to tout the Republican candidate at the top of the ticket: President George W. Bush for re-election in 2004, Charlie Crist for governor in 2006, John McCain for president in 2008, Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate in 2010 -- even though in overwhelmingly Democratic Broward it sometimes prompted unfriendly gestures from other drivers.

Day is loath to violate Regan's "11th Commandment" that "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican." There were a couple of exceptions: In her home base at the Broward Republican Party, she'd criticize those who spent time bickering with one another about ideological purity instead of working to elect the party's candidates. And she'd also criticize party members who preferred socializing than doing nitty gritty campaign work.

In a party that has seen the ebbs and flows of influence by ideological conservatives, who care most about social issues, and more moderate members who care more about economic issues -- and more recently populism embodied by Trump, Day wasn't an overarching ideological player. She argued for inclusiveness and broadening the Republican Party, sometimes in ways that the social conservatives didn't like.

Jack Majeske, a Republican committeeman and past president of the Broward Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT political club, said Day was helpful to his organization. He said she's been tireless in advancing woman and minorities and lauded her "welcoming personality and obvious caring."

But she could also make her views known -- forcefully, if necessary, said Ed Pozzuoli, chairman of the Tripp Scott law firm in Fort Lauderdale. He and Day overlapped in the Broward Republican Party leadership when he was party chairman from 1996 to 2000.

"Sharon is very straightforward," Pozzuoli said. "There was no equivocation as to where she was. You would get the straight scoop as to what she thought, and that usually came in a very passionate way."

Pozzuoli said the two of them would argue like brother and sister. "Whether you agree or disagree with her on a particular political point, she's such a positive person about how to impact our community," Pozzuoli said. "And she's not shy about working hard. She's one of those people who could go be an ambassador, with all those trappings, but also stuff envelopes and get on the phone and work with volunteers and knock on doors and all of those things."

As much as Day was exuberant about all things Republican, she was acerbic about Democrats.

She lacerated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at last year's Republican National Convention.

"As first lady, you viciously attacked the character of women who were sexually abused at the hands of your husband," Day said. "Now, don't get me wrong, I want to see a woman be president one day. I want my granddaughters to see a woman as president one day. But [as] I stand before you, not that woman, not Hillary Clinton."

When the crowd at a Trump rally in Miami in September stated chanting, "Lock her up," about Clinton, Day said "That would be a good start."

Ambassadors are supposed to leave politics back at home.

Ambassadors have broad responsibility to manage the government's activities in the countries to which they're assigned. They are responsible for keeping their host countries informed about U.S. policy and objectives and vice versa, reporting local information and analysis back to Washington. Ambassadors are in charge of U.S. government employees in the country, except for service members under military command.

Day and her husband, Larry, who died in 2012, built an insurance and reinsurance business from three employees to 156 in Indianapolis. They supported Republican candidates financially, but working 60 to 80 hours a week left no time to do anything more. She has two children and five grandchildren.

After selling the business and retiring early to South Florida in the early 1990s, the Days stumbled into activism. When they walked into a Republican Party office to register to vote as new Broward residents, the Days were recruited to get involved.

She became a precinct committeewoman in 1994, the state Republican committeewoman representing Broward in 1996, the national committeewoman representing Florida in 2004, national party secretary in 2009, and national party co-chairwoman in 2011. Along the way, she's defeated candidates who had more seniority, were favored by party powerbrokers, or were incumbents holding the office she sought.

Hera Becker challenged Day in the August 2016 Republican primary for job of state Republican committeewoman from Broward. Day won 77 percent of the vote.

Becker said she ran for the job because Day wasn't as active locally once the national party became her focus. "I think she did a good job at the RNC. They obviously did a great job in Florida getting Trump elected," Becker said. "I think she'll be good as an ambassador."

Bob Sutton, chairman of the Broward Republican Party, said Day would legally remain a resident of Broward and does not have to resign as a party leader. He referred questions about her intentions to Day, who isn't able to respond to media inquiries.

Day would replace S. Fitzgerald Haney, who was a businessman before President Barack Obama named him an ambassador. The timing is uncertain. The position requires Senate confirmation, and the Senate is scheduled to be in session for just three weeks before Labor Day.

She has an advantage in the Senate: U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. In his book, "An American Son," Rubio said Day blocked a move by Crist, then the state's Republican governor, from turning the state party into an arm of Crist's campaign for U.S. Senate.

Rubio wrote that Day "was my last hope," explaining that if she had caved to the pressure, "my campaign almost certainly would have collapsed."

Through a spokeswoman, Rubio praised Day as "an outstanding choice to serve as U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica. Sharon has an impressive business record and has shown great commitment to each of her endeavors. I look forward to supporting her nomination and I wholeheartedly encourage my colleagues to do the same."

About Costa Rica

Costa Rica is situated between Nicaragua and Panama.

It has a population of 4.9 million. Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties have a combined population of 5.9 million.

Costa Rica is slightly smaller in size than West Virginia, according to the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook. It's about one-third the size of Florida.

aman@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4550

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