ZachColletti

By Andrew Meacham

InJanuary 2021, Zach Colletti started work as a legisla tive aide to Sen. Jeff Brandes. It was a baptism by fire.

“My first day there, he handed me 80-plus pages of re search and said, ‘Take a look at this and let’s talk about it tomorrow,’” said Colletti, 25. The document laid out the dynamics of a property insurance crisis threatening com panies and customers alike. Providers were reeling from a flood of lawsuits, many of them fraudulent. Compa nies were leaving the state and those that remained were kicking customers off their rolls or charging higher rates.

“I was just shocked,“ Colletti said. “I was like, ‘How haven’t I heard about this? I’ve lived here my entire life, this is crazy!’”

Why would he? Like most of his peers a couple years out of college, Colletti had nev er taken out a homeowner’s policy. He spent that night poring over the complexities that have allowed Florida to account for 9% of the insurance market in the country and 79% of its litigation, according to a 2022 report by the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation.

But as his employers have discovered, Colletti feels most at home when tearing apart the thorn iest issues affecting voters, then framing them in easily digestible language. He worked for Brandes’ office 16 months, leading other staffers on both insur ance and transportation.

“Our office was typically one of the busiest in the Leg islature as far as bills and amendments went,” Brandes said. “And (Colletti) had two whole areas of policy that he oversaw for our team. He was consistently outper forming his peers on almost every level.”

“In many ways he reminds me of Brandes said, referring to another former legislative aide and INFLUENCE Magazine “30 Under 30” winner. Spen cer now directs policy and budget for Gov.

In addition to work ethic, both men possess an “abil ity to creatively think around problems,” Brandes added.

After two legislative Sessions, Colletti rejoined En wright Rimes Consulting. That relationship had begun serendipitously a few years earlier, as he was complet ing a bachelor’s degree at Florida State University and interning with the Republican Party of Florida. Enwright Rimes is located one floor below the RPOF headquarters on East Jefferson Street, in the

“The internship was kind of ending, and he wound up coming downstairs and working for us,” co-founder

The initial stint lasted 15 months in the company’s digital arm. He worked Zach Monahan, another former INFLUENCE Rising Star who is now Enwright Rimes’ creative director. Colletti returned in April 2022 as director of operations, and has since contributed to the winning campaigns of state Reps. and Jason Brodeur, state Nick DiCeglie, and Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus.

His verbal acumen comes in handy in a variety of roles, whether it’s writing newsletter content for a client, explaining what’s at stake this week in the Legislature or prepping candidates for a debate. “He’s got a really good feel for how to take those complex issues and make them relatable and understandable to people in real life,” Rimes said.

He grew up in West Palm Beach, the son of a shop foreman for county school buses who once cooked for restaurants. “He’s the best cook I’ve ever met,” Colletti said. “That’s objective. I’m not saying that because he’s my dad.”

While some kids rely on an allowance, Colletti got his extra money working at Publix stores from the ninth grade through his freshman year of college. He went to FSU with plans for law school, majoring in political science because that seemed like a decent bet to pave the way.

Because law and politics are often intertwined, he took an internship with the Mayernick Group for the 2018 Session. And a funny thing happened: He liked it.

“I had a really great experience with them, and that made me decide to keep pushing forward in this field,” he said. In April of that year he joined the gubernatorial campaign of Adam Putnam, at the time a solid favorite to win the Republican nomination. That all changed with a timely endorsement by President Donald Trump for DeSantis.

“I certainly realized how quickly the tide can turn in politics, and especially in elections,” said Colletti, who worked in the final months of the DeSantis campaign as a recruiter. He spent the next two and a half years with the National Federation of Independent Business, then as a digital project manager for Supernova Digital (an Enwright Rimes company), which proved eye opening.

“That was my first time seeing how things on the higher level of campaigns are done,” he said. “How the fundraising happens, how the messaging happens, and all of the factors that go into getting your message out effectively.”

Colletti said he enjoyed that learning experience and hoped to return to Enwright Rimes once his time working for Brandes, an equally irreplaceable opportunity, had passed. In a sense, the next 16 months brought him full circle, beyond the art and science of campaigns to their purpose.

“Most of the people who vote are not poring over policy,” he said. “Their jobs are not involved in politics. They have a laundry list of other things in their personal lives. So for me, making it easy for someone to stay informed is a really important part of civic society. The more information you can put in front of someone before they vote, the better it is for our democracy.”

Taking phone calls from the public brought home the stakes, none more vividly than those from anxious homeowners who had lost their insurance, or unwittingly signed on to a contractor’s lawsuit that did not benefit them.

“Fielding those calls is hard,” he said. “We know what has to be done, but sometimes there are serious roadblocks. That’s hard to explain to somebody who says, ‘I can’t afford to live in my home anymore that I’ve owned for 20-plus years.’ It really affects you. But it makes working on issues like that seem even more important.”

Away from work, Colletti said he enjoys cooking. Grilling in particular was “a big COVID hobby of mine,” he said, one he could get right or wrong without grave consequences. He aims for impeccable flavors, the way his father taught him.