140 | INFLUENCE WINTER 2016 many months, and things were heating up, and having had experience from Bill’s (Mc- Bride’s 2002) gubernatorial campaign, I raised my hand and said I’ll be the travel aide if (Justin) keeps driving,” recalls Sink. “I sat in the back of Betty’s convertible all cramped up, and got to know Justin that way.” Castor’s political career ended that fall when she lost to Martinez, but Day’s was just getting started. He helped Sink in her campaign for chief financial officer in 2006, while also doing some work for Rod Smith in his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor. He would go back to work with Sink a few years later, but next up was a stint as executive director of the now-defunct Florida Mainstream Democrats, an organization created to push for moderate Democrats to win across the state. Former South Florida legislators Steven Geller and Dave Aronberg jointly made the hire. “He impressed us from Day 1, and he’s done nothing but impress me ever since,” says Aronberg, who says that Day is smart, hardworking, very likeable, and also humble — “which can be hard to find in these circles.” “He knew all my secrets,” Castor recounts. “Justin was a good sidekick, ran interference, and met supporters easily.” That election was the first U.S. Senate contest in Florida since 9/11, and Martinez made sure to remind voters about how Castor’s tenure as president of the University of South Florida in the 1990s coincided with the initial FBI investigation into Sami Al-Arian, an assistant computer science and engineering professor who created a Middle Eastern think tank on the USF campus. Under Castor’s tenure, USF ultimately put Al-Arian on a two-year paid leave during an investigation before allowing him back on campus in 1998. Castor departed the university in 1999, and in 2003, Al-Arian was arrested on charges he raised money for terrorist groups (In 2008, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to one count of material support to terrorists, and was ultimately deported to Turkey in 2015). “Sami Al-Arian,” Day sighs when the name is invoked. “That name will never leave my repertoire.” During the last few months of the campaign, Day connected with Alex Sink, who would be important in elevating his stature. “It had just been Betty and Justin for so “He listens more than he talks,” continues Aronberg, who was re-elected without opposition in November to another fouryear term as state attorney for Palm Beach County. “And when he speaks, he’s never bombastic. I’m just glad he’s on our team.” A few years later, Sink hired Day to work outside of her office as her political and finance director, a position paid for by the Florida Democratic Party as she contemplated a run for 2010. “He’s very detailed oriented and organized, and most of all, he just has a fantastic personality, and that’s why he’s been successful now in a much bigger playing field, because of how respectful of people he is, and he does what he says he’s going to do,” Sink says. It was around this time Day became more active in fundraising for state Democrats, where he learned he was good at it. In 2011 he began raising money for Barack Obama’s re-election in Florida, and started out by committing to try to raise $50,000. His first two events brought in $70,000. “I blew away the original goal of what I was trying to raise. Then I committed to the next level,” he remembers. He ended up serving on Obama’s Before becoming a lobbyist, Justin Day worked on the campaigns of most of Florida’s Democratic luminaries — as well as supporting those with a national profile, including Hillary Clinton (this page), Barack and Michelle Obama (facing page, top) and Bill Clinton (facing page, bottom). PHOTOS: Courtesy Justin Day POWER PLAYER
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