It appears Jubilee Development Group may have funded the “blackface mailer” sent to District 4 via Mark Zubaly’s Committee to Protect Florida. On July 30, the developer contributed $15,000 to the PAC.
- Jubilee also contributed $9,000 to America First Alliance, which is paying for Calkins’s weird, misleading text messages.
State Rep. Michelle Salzman registered with the state to solicit funds for the Committee to Protect Florida – Salzman_Solicit.
- She has recommended Zubaly to several local candidates since she was elected in 2020.
- Salzman had endorsed and campaigned for Ashlee Hofberger, who is running against Walker Wilson and Buck Mitchell in the D4 GOP primary.
- The buzz is Salzman has denied any knowledge of the offensive mailer and has blamed ECUA board member Lois Benson for it.
Sheriff Chip Simmons has appeared on billboards and mailers standing next to several candidates. However, he has only endorsed one – County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh in the D1 GOP primary. He made that very clear on “Real News with Rick Outzen” yesterday.
“I actually have only endorsed one candidate, and that’s Jeff Bergosh in that district. If people ask me why, it’s because he has been loyal to the sheriff’s office and getting our pay competitive and getting our increase in our manpower.
He’s held these conversations with me about a precinct in Beulah, and he promises that that will be forthcoming. And I think that that’s very important. But he’s the incumbent commissioner, and so that’s the only one that I’m officially endorsing.”
U.S. Senator Rick Scott dismissed any suggestion to disband the Blue Angels, the Navy’s flight demonstration squadron. He agrees with us that the Blue Angels inspire our kids and help with recruitment.
“I tell you what, they probably need to expand,” said Sen. Scott when he visited with military veterans at Warrior Beer Company in Pensacola yesterday. “The Navy’s hurting on recruitment; we’ve got to excite young men and women. What the Blue Angels do is they excite young people to join the service and to be pilots.”
He continued, “I know a young lady who is just starting her fourth year at Annapolis, and she did her first solo this summer. She wants to be a Navy pilot. So no, no, it’d be the opposite. We’ve got to recruit more people.”
There is a question whether or not Lois Benson had the fee in 2022 based on campaign finance reports, my position is, I will not pursue any claims on 2022 beyond Flack rights should I win ECUA 3, I think this is her last term, I generally, I think of the record of Representative Benson, the daughter, we agree not on every issue, but there are areas where we have some accord, and where I have brought hope and inspiration to the people of Escambia County in my campaign, I believe both Lois and Holly are hearing the cries of middle class mothers, and understand that we are fighting for reform and good government in Escambia County.
Think of the aspirational mother in Montclair, she works hard, she makes sure her kids go to college, is proud when they get jobs in Atlanta, and buy her that new car she shows off, the aspirational mother in Montclair does not want her kids and grandkids drawn into crime just because they catch some bad luck when they have the smarts and work ethic for better.
Ultimately, Benson, if I win, serves the remainder of her term, she only serves it not if she did not have the fee in on time, that litigation is paused till this election and should I win August 20th, only becomes a Flack case for a period of 2 years from roughly November 22, 2022 but right now it is unclear, because her reports show a fee paid in August, Stafford assured me no late reports, no fine assessed against her campaign, but it becomes a matter of just Flack rights, if she lacked the fee, there is a discrepancy, because Bender told me she had the June 6, 2022 check for a fee as did an employee in the office previously but Stafford said she had no late reports, but right now we have an election going on.
Again, when Senate President Childers created ECUA, he never intended county commission districts to match ECUA districts, that they are conterminous does not mean they are the same, and as I stated before, a non-charter county can have 5 or 7 districts by state law but ECUA is an independent special district created by state legislation.
My plan will stabilize the agency, allow for lower bills without new taxes or rate hikes, new capital improvements, again look at the city of Pensacola where only a small territory yields $50,000,000 a year in outside natural gas sales where the city has a $313 million dollar budget and think of what ECUA can yield doing the same, the jobs created, but if I am elected, again the only question in 2022 is a compensation one, in theory, but with my 2024-2028 term no particular reason to pursue a 2022-2026 term where only two are left.
Read my Chamber of Commerce answers, my Pensacola News Journal answers, my League of Women Voters 411 answers.
Ultimately remember that my Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather Louis DeMouy (his wife was a Grelot, a road in Mobile is named for my ancestors, it is a beautiful road, it is paved and wide and up to code) hosted General Lafayette on his trip to America in the 1820s at his inn at St. Michael and Royal in Mobile which later became the Old Register Building, his great great granddaughter of course being my great-grandmother Connie Bea Hope, and right now many people are again discussing which times they watched the Connie Bea and Estelle show over the years and old episodes and also the old Dot Moore program as well.
People understand that I am bringing a can do mentality to my work once I am on ECUA and I am doing all I can to make P-S-C-F-L-A our locality a better place, in my time in office on ECUA.
But as it pertains to Lois Benson, at this point, I am elected, no reason she cannot serve out her term, for an open race in 2026, lest she seeks re-election, some are saying over age she will not, I have heard these rumors, I just only mention rumors I have heard, but the only one with a claim on that term in theory is me over the fee question, elected on Tuesday, that ceases to be my concern, I am not giving up a 4 year term to be up for re-election quicker.
Why would Jubilee, which so far as we know only has development interests in Santa Rosa County, try to influence an Escambia County Commission seat? That doesn’t make any sense.