Mortgage banking has spilled into the U.S. Senate race in Connecticut, with Republican candidate Linda McMahon (pictured top) filing a complain with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) against her opponent, Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy (pictured bottom), over a home equity loan that he received in 2008.
According to a report on Politico, the McMahon campaign sent a letter on Sept. 7 to the OCE stating seeking to investigate whether Murphy had ‘accepted a prohibited gift and used his official position to secure himself personal and political financial benefit.’ Murphy was sued in 2007, two months after beginning his first term in Congress, for defaulting on a $180,000 home mortgage that originated with Webster Bank. The case was later dropped, and Murphy received an additional $43,000 home equity line of credit from Webster Bank in July 2008, with a 4.99% interest rate.
‘Congressman Murphy, leveraging his official position, was granted a generous home mortgage – despite a long history of financial irresponsibility and shortly after defaulting on his existing home mortgage and being sued by the mortgage holder for foreclosure – from Webster Bank, a bank he both regulates and voted to bail out,’ wrote Cory Bliss, McMahon's campaign manager, to the OCE.
The Murphy campaign dismissed the McMahon complaint as nothing more than petty politics.
‘Since Linda McMahon can't talk about her real record as CEO – laying off Connecticut workers, while taking millions in taxpayer-funded credits and denying health care and disability to her workers – all she's left with is for her campaign manager to file a desperate ethics attack filled with lies,’ says Taylor Lavender, a Murphy spokeswoman.
