More on the deadbeat Dem/Hillary superdelegate/Calif. congresswoman who welched on her mortgage–and her taxes and utility bills, too!
Just to bring you up to date: Democrat Calif. Rep. Laura Richardson yesterday denied a Capitol Weekly report that she had walked away from her half-million-dollar-plus, second-home mortgage. Mounting evidence contracts her denial.
Also: I am checking with California government officials to try to get an answer to WLS’s good question about whether Richardson, who was a California state assemblywoman when she purchased the now-abandoned home, was “receiving tax-free per diem from the State of California to pay for the mortgage [on the house]…which she elected not to pay in order to pump money into her campaign for Congress.” Stay tuned for that.
Meantime, last night, the AP published more details of the Hillary superdelegate’s financial woes. Turns out she didn’t bother to pay utility fees and property taxes on the house, either:
California Congresswoman Laura Richardson has a unique perspective on the housing foreclosure bills moving through Congress: One of her own homes was threatened with repossession after she failed to pay the mortgage.
Richardson, a Southern California Democrat, bought a two-story home in a leafy, upper-middle class neighborhood of Sacramento in January 2007, just months after winning a seat in the state Assembly.
Property records on file in Sacramento show Richardson bought the three-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath home on West Curtis Drive for $535,500.
The bill collectors started knocking soon after, according to records reviewed Wednesday by The Associated Press.
In June 2007, the city’s utility department placed a lien on her property for $154 in unpaid bills, according to documents on file at the Sacramento County Recorder’s Office. In December, Richardson received a default notice from the collection agency of Washington Mutual Inc., her lender. At that point, she owed $18,356. …Records on file at the Sacramento County Tax Collector’s Office also show Richardson is delinquent in paying $8,950 in property taxes.
The WSJ followed up and quoted the buyer of Richardson’s house scoffing at the politician’s denials. The bank took a $200,000 hit as a result of Richardson’s decision to ditch the house, which was filled with “trash to the ceiling” when she abandoned it:
James York, the Sacramento broker who bought the three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom home, rejected the idea that the home hadn’t been seized. The sale of the home was announced in March. “She’s walked away from the property,” he said. “I would be happy to resell her the home for the $535,000.”
And via the excellent L.A. Land blog, the Daily Breeze offers more evidence that Richardson’s denials are purse horse-hockey:
Richardson declined to be interviewed Wednesday about the foreclosure, which was first revealed in Capitol Weekly, a Sacramento-based publication. But in a statement, Richardson denied that the home was in foreclosure and said it had not been seized by the bank.
“I have worked with my lender to complete a loan modification and have renegotiated the terms of the agreement - with no special provisions,” Richardson said in the statement. “I fully intend to fulfill all financial obligations on the property.”
That would come as a surprise to James York, the Sacramento real estate broker who bought Richardson’s house at auction. York specializes in buying and selling foreclosed homes, and said he eventually intends to resell Richardson’s home, which overlooks a park in an upscale neighborhood.
York produced a trustee’s deed confirming that his company, Red Rock Mortgage Inc., owns the house.
York said the house was relatively clean when he found it, at least compared to other foreclosed homes, though the garage was “full of trash to the ceiling.” Workers have been cleaning it out and tending to the yard, which had been left unmowed for months.
When he bought the house at 3622 W. Curtis Drive, York assumed responsibility for Richardson’s unpaid property tax bill of $8,950.79.
“Tell Laura I’d be happy to have her pay my property tax,” York said.
The real loser in the deal was Washington Mutual Bank, which issued Richardson a $535,000 loan with no money down in January 2007. By the time the default notice was issued, Richardson was underwater on the loan. She owed about $575,000, including $18,000 in missed payments.
Washington Mutual ended up writing off nearly $200,000 of that debt to get rid of the property. “They took a beating,” York said.
The previous owner of the home, Sharon Helmar, said the neighbors were “appalled” that Richardson was not maintaining the lawn. Another neighbor said that until recently the grass was about a foot high.
“It’s kind of heartbreaking to see something you’ve worked on for 30 years be left and not taken care of,” Helmar said. “You would have thought someone like that would have been a little more responsible.”
Not really. I repeat: This behavior, which has only been encouraged by the latest rounds of stimulus-palooza and the subprime rescue bandwagon, is perfectly in keeping with the Beltway spend-borrow-screw over-repeat culture.
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- Deadbeat Democrat Laura Richardson | 186 k per second
- Random Nuclear Strikes » I almost couldn’t believe it
- Rhymes With Right
- Michelle Malkin » Deadbeat Dem defaulted on three home loans while lending her campaign $77,500. Hellllooo, Congress?
- UNBELIEVEABLE, at best! at Desert Conservative
- American Street » Blog Archive » Petrol Lotta Love
- Michelle Malkin » Deadbeat, defaulting Dem’s fishy deal with WaMu
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Michelle, see if you can find out if she was getting per diem to pay for it…
Looking into it…
Dems just can’t help themselves when it comes to lining up for any entitlement they can get their hands on, including the politicians. Thank you Laura Richardson for such a reinforcing example.
This woman is trash. Pure and simple…trash. Typical California democrat. How is she supposed to handle state money when she can’t handle her own? Just totally irresponsible.
Not only did she deny da allegation, she denied da alligator!
Notwithstanding this readership, I think this does reflect on the electorate who elect and re-elect this type. How else can you explain, too, any other liberal that gets in and stays in office? How else do you explain the show trials of yesterday where liberals can grill oil executives on our energy crisis who themselves caused it, the farm subsidy bill that pays off millionaires, the opposition to the Iraq war and Terrorism, the global warming hoax, earmark and immigration corruption, not to mention the home loan bailout to people who should instead be in jail for fraud? Our problems stem from an electorate that allows this sort of dingbat in power in the first place.
Weren’t there Middle Ages monarchs who had a reputation for this?
Rep. Richardson, please define the following:
walked away (was it ran away from?)
seized
foreclosure
repossession
failed to pay
is
Let’s have a parsing session, shall we? What part of this report are we NOT understanding?
Why should this situation even bother this woman? There will be no consequences and probably never has been. I doubt this behavior is something new for her. She obviously believes she’s entitled and therefore justified.
And…if she does get away with this, with no penalty, her liberal constituency will reward her with re-election, because she stuck it to “the man.” Dare I say, Idol worship? Seems to be prevalent in the party of the “have nots!”
It will probably never occur to her that if she was allowed to keep the 50% of her income the government steals in taxes she would probably still have the home.
Cleeeeeeeeeeearly a vickum of predatory lenduhs.
Heh. Richardson’s doomed…
Yep - she’ll be re-elected because she’s a victim. Nothing makes a better dem than a victim.
James York, you son of a gun, blowing the spot on a liar and a deadbeat.
Ms.Richardson:
You can’t fulfill the obligations of the people, if you have a hard time taking care of your own.
I suppose they could garnish her pay. It’s not like she actually works for it.
I wonder if she is in favor of reparations?
Any comment from Maxine Waters, the Governator, constituants?
Can she be impeached?
Contradicts?
she will be forced to retire with that meager $160,000 per year for life pension and full healthcare for her and family.
Awwww, she is gonna loose her 2nd home! What a mean country!
Maybe with a 12% approval rating we should give her a raise? Maybe a section 8 voucher? Can we as a nation allow a member of congress to have only one large home?
YES, WE CAN.
My what a shining example of responsibility this congresswoman is. Yet another politician on the make. This must reassure her constitutuents. Or is it just another case of “do as I say not as I do?”
One more thing: is this just yet another shining example of a pandering enabler at her finest or what?
This quote comes from the local paper and I just wonder how much money from the Government went into that park. And if the property value went up.
John, just what are you implying?
A piece of trash left her house trashed when she left it. A bunch of pieces of trash elected her.
Elected officials who can’t manage their own finances should not be allowed to touch taxpayer money.
A sidenote, she bought in a part of the city that got way overpriced before the bottom fell out of the market in the Sacramento area. It is a nice older neighborhood but the houses there should never have been any where near that pricey. Not to excuse her actions though she was stupid to buy at that price. Sac’to got way overpriced during the housing boom and is why I bought out in the country in a little farming community. Sacramento as a result took a big hit when the market collapsed thus the high number of foreclosures in the region.
Her constituants no doubt applaud her as a victim of the oppressive system keeping women and minorities down.
pandering enabler : definition of typical Democrat politician.
On May 22nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm, rambler said:
Elected officials who can’t manage their own finances should not be allowed to touch taxpayer money.
Good freakin point! If you or I apply for a job, we can expect a credit check no?
The ones who elected this deadbeat are probably the same ones who say the gov’t owes them and are defrauding the taxpayers of sometype of gov’t assistance. I agree she will probably be rewarded for her actions by her constituants. My how far we have fallen. When those who are entrusted to make the laws now break them without fear of punishment we are overriden with corruption.
Washinton Mutual should be pursuing her in court to recover the remainder of the money they are owed. I am sure some liberal MSM’er will say she is being punished because she is a minority. If I was a stockholder in Wash. Mutual I would be demanding they recover the money. By all rights she should be censured if not removed from the US Congress.
If that were a prerequisite for office, we’d have a better field of candidates: )
I like your sense of humor!
The question is which came first? Personal fiscal irresponsibility that transferred over into government OR irresponsibility with taxpayer dollars that transferred over into personal finances?
It really is fascinating. In that stomach-turning, blood-pressure raising sort of way.
My husband and I (and pretty much everyone here) no doubt make a fraction of what this congresswoman does, yet we’ve never been evicted, had our utilities shut off, or failed to pay taxes.
How pathetic.
englishqueen01, it was most likely her first taste of state monies that that led to this… if that first taste was in congress, or long before is a good question.
methinks long before.
Trash is as Trash Does.
And when banks start to fall over, the government bails them out, and ultimately the responsible, honest, tax-paying citizens pay for it via increased taxes.
These people who walk away should, at the very least, be automatically declared bankrupt, and their existing homes sold from under them to repay what they effectively stole in their greed. They should NOT be rewarded, and we should certainly not be penalized for their actions. If they have assets, seize them! Garnish her congressional wages too - in fact, she should automatically lose her position in light of her lies and irresponsibility.
Gad this just makes me sick. I looked at an apartment last night. Can’t afford it though, but maybe I should just go for it anyway.
If I read this right she bought the house for 135 four years ago. But, her last note was a 535 no down / no doc. That means she got a hyped appraisal and walked away from closing with 400k.
At the very least, I hope she gets slapped with a 1099 form for the $200,000 in losses WaMu took on this loan. The IRS considers a “short sale” like this as taxable income. I sure hope there isn’t a double standard for Congress peeps. The only way out of that tax hit, is to have declared BK at the time the house went back to the lender and put the loan on the BK paperwork. No mention of a BK in any of the articles, so she is going to have a very nasty tax problem. But then again, maybe Congress peeps get a pass from the IRS.
John Edwards was right, there are two Americas. The first America is where the privileged ruling class has one set of rules for behavior and economic consequences, and then the rest of us who get held to our contracts or suvver the consequences.
In the Military you do something like this with pay or allowances you end up facing a Courts Martial and a couple years in a Military prison this woman will probably end up skating completely out of this by playing the victim card of her choice (minority, female, bamboozled by the man, etc.).
Make that SUFFER the consequences. Sorry about that, I thought I hit “preview”. Ooops
This is really a sad comment on society. Why do the rest of us work hard, pay our bills on time, do without and still manage to get screwed by ascoflaw, loser, pig who will probably be re-elected with a landslide? Maybe because we’re not trash. People who walk away from their obligations are trashy, plain and simple.
Typical though to leave the house in a mess according to what I read and hear on the news. Here in PWC the county has to pick up the mowing. Luckily in my little neighborhood there is no foreclosures yet but in a neighborhood where one of my little son’s friends live the neighbors decided to ban together and cut the grass themselves and not wait on the county to do it. They also decided to keep the alarm activiated as well so no squatters come in. That’s another problem with these trashy people who leave their homes abandoned. In fact we looked at one house that was stripped of everything-all light fixtures, faucets, toliets, tubs and showers broken, hardwood floors scratched up and pulled up in some cases, tile floors smashed and carpeting-well that’s better left unsaid and they still wanted 850K for this thing. We couldn’t afford it and if we could it would have been another 90-125K to fix it up. But people like this outstanding person will continue to get away this kind of garbage.
And this screw-off is making economic policy for the state? Frightening.
Didn’t a great leader once say (words to this effect):
When an official with prower to tax (automatically ie: the IRS) one citizen to buy votes from another —this nation is doomed.?
Historians out there–who was it?
If MSNBC digs deep enough I’m sure they’ll find Carl Rove at the bottom of this, right ? She is, after all just a victim. Yeeeaah riiight.
Gee, to paraphrase James Carville, I guess this is what you get when you ‘drag a [free] $535,500 loan through the U.S. House of Representatives,’ huh?
*rolls eyes*
She’s a real class act. What a lovely representative of Democrats and the people of California. Those who voted for her must be sooo proud.
I think it’s pretty obvious by now that there isn’t many in all of Congree that knows how to handle money - especially the taxpayers!
remember the house bank?????
And we wonder why Washington was falling all over themselves to pass a housing bailout.
we can only hope
To tell you the truth I am more concerned about the people who voted for her…I mean really.
Does this help Michelle Obama’s kids?
This goes to her character. Character doesn’t count, remember?
I mean, it does matter to the bank. But in Democrat politics, well…
They’ll spin it as, “See, this crisis affects even us honest politicians. It’s not us - it’s the evil, greedy banks!“
Well-said, indeed.
Somebody needs to put her mug on some billboards.
I feel much safer that I am in the good hands of Laurie Richardson as our Assembly Woman.
She is a liberal Democrat but fiscally very conservative.
Very tightwad with money, Government money as well as her own. She would rather lose her 2nd home than the hard earned money in hte pocket.
Some would say that this is her way of collecting the reparation money we owe her. There is absolutely no truth to that.
Damn you Havok. I was going to say that.
Regularguy!!! Constituents of most Republican reps are themselves at least somewhat successful, or at least have responsibilities that they handle in most cases. In other words, a Republicans constituents generally have STANDARDS that they hold their Representatives to uphold.
Democrat/Liberals don’t have standards. They don’t adhere to rules nor do they believe in moral principles. Their constituents in most cases are from one victim class or another. The Representative is an extension of their victimhood. Take a look at ANY urban American city Congressional district and you’ll see dysfunction voting for dysfunction. Stuck on stupid. It’s a culture of failure, jealousy and victim hood. Much of it is race based. Much of the constituency is ill educated, uneducated or simply stupid.
The Democrat Party uses and eggs on these failures as pawns.
Corruption is the norm these days. It comes with our “entitlement” society. I’m still waiting for the trial of Rep. Jefferson…zzzzz. They know they can get away with it, and are covered by their fellow politicians and party.
Libocrat, I’m in your Amen corner. But it’s still depressing when you consider the liberal majority in both houses, and the dearth of conservative voices in government that should put these people to shame (yeah, I know liberals are shameless) on a daily basis. We just have very few on either side of the aisle who can articulate any conservative principles, the type of unapologetic conservative leadership that would not only energize the conservative base, but forcefully counterbalance these outright criminals we’re stuck with in office. We need someone, particularly while we are at war, who has the gonads to tell these people to put up or shut up, that the American people deserve and expect far better than the likes of this verminous Representative from California. And, sadly, we are stuck with a lot of verminous people out there who vote, who will neither work to be informed, nor care about the consequences the rest of us pay for. America has seldom been more poorly served, and this is also a reflection of the pathetic shape of her electorate in vast numbers of locales.
Richardson must be barred from participating in discussions and voting on any bail-out legislation coming from the H of R … major conflict of interest.
Superdelegate supporting Hillary….not surprising…like peas in a pod.
This is becoming an all to common explanation in a group of people that we have put in charge of our lives. Or let be put in charge of our lives.
There oughta be a law….