Ambassador confirmed
Lauderdale’s Sharon Day assigned to Costa Rica
President Donald Trump’s nomination of Sharon Day of Fort Lauderdale as U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Day’s nomination was among 68 presidential appointments approved by the Senate on Thursday, the last day of work before its summer vacation. Like all of the other nominees, Day was approved on a voice vote.
A swearing-in date hasn’t been set. Day, like other presidential nominees, isn’t allowed to comment before she’s sworn in.
Day visited Costa Rica before her nomination, and during her confirmation hearing last month before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she said she has seen its “natural beauty and her biodiversity, its culture and the kindness of its people.”
She speaks some Spanish and has been taking lessons.
Day, 66, is a major player in Republican Party politics in Broward, the state and the country and was an outspoken supporter of Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. She frequently served as an introductory speaker during his rallies.
The Day nomination continues a longstanding tradition by presidents of both parties, who nominate political supporters or campaign donors to ambassadorial positions. The American Foreign Service Association, which represents career foreign service officers, reports that about 30 percent of ambassadors have traditionally
been political.
One of the other ambassadorial nominations confirmed Thursday was Lew Eisenberg of Vero Beach. He’s a major Republican Party fundraiser and will be the new ambassador to Italy.
The U.S. and Costa Rica have national security interests that include immigration, human trafficking and drug smuggling. U.S. tourists are partial to the country; some 1.2 million Americans visited Costa Rica last year, Day said during her confirmation hearing. Many are from Florida. Two airlines offer nonstop flights from Fort Lauderdale to San Jose, Costa Rica. Also, 160,000U.S. citizens live there.
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 incharge ofU.S. government employees in the country, except for service members under military command. The salary ranges from $161,900 to $172,100 a year.
The president has complained that the Senate has delayed his nominations. Day’s nomination moved quickly by Senate standards. Her nomination was announced on June14.
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. She’d previously served as the national party secretary.
She became a local precinct committeewoman in Broward 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 power brokers, or were incumbents holding the office she sought.
Day is constantly demonstrating her loyalty to the party:
Just before the 2008 presidential election she printed little political statements to slip in kids’ Halloween bags along with the candy, figuring that their parents would get the missives when they sorted through their children’s hauls.
“Don’t Make Everyday Halloween in America! Keep Barack Obama from using your hardearned dollars as his own personal ‘Trick or Treat’ bag!” the missives read, along with a pitch to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Her dog, a black and white cockapoo that 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 “bigmouthed 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.
Among the candidates for whom she wrapped her car: 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.
The voicemail on her cell phone tells callers to “help make America great again. Vote Republican.”