Daily Outtakes: Fish House refinance, D4 racist mailer and Salzman’s spending spree

Some of Pensacola’s most popular restaurants aren’t closing, and their ownership isn’t changing.

A Great Southern Restaurants spokesperson last night explained the report of Truist foreclosing on a loan tied to several of its restaurants, including Fish House, Atlas Oyster House, Jackson’s Steakhouse, Five Sisters’ Blues Cafe, and Angelena’s, was based on court documents recently filed, but the foreclosure is the result of a debt restructuring negotiation that failed.

• A low-interest loan came due earlier this year, and the new interest rate offered was more than double the original rate, a similar dilemma that many local businesses are facing.

The total value of the properties securing the debt is about $20 million, and the company is confident it will refinance the debt with another bank, according to the spokesperson.

The restaurants’s operations will not be impacted.

Florida Politics picked up my article on the blackface, race-baiting mailer sent to Republican voters in Escambia County’s District 4. Readers statewide will read about today in Peter Schorsch’s daily newsletter, Sunburn.

• The Buck Mitchell campaign has confirmed that it has no connection to Mark Zubaly, the political consultant behind the flyer. Several local officials and political advisors from around the state have offered their thoughts on who funded the flyer and whom Zubaly was trying to help. More later.

While the News Journal has ignored the mailer, its Fort Walton Beach reporter, Tom McLaughlin, reports two Walton County Commissioners are in trouble for racist text messages sent while attending a conference in Washington, D.C. in July 2021. The Sunburn newsletter highlights the article.

The first text message, which read “Plenty of (N-word) out this evening” was accompanied by a photo of two Black men seated in a vehicle.

State Rep. Michelle Salzman has spent more money on her reelection than any state lawmaker in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties – over $409,000, even though her Democratic opponent has only spent about $2,200.

However, our analysis shows that some of her expenditures were donations to the Republican Party of Florida and other candidates – $58,508. The net on her campaign is $350,887.66

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