http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100719/article/7191050
This is Florida's selection of choice pick for their next Attorney General and not one of them makes mortgage fraud a campaign issue.
The question is why? Look at their experience 2 Senators,current lieutenant governor, a prosecutor.
There is no excuse for not being current on the issues that are such a concern to their constituents.
Rampant mortgage fraud during the housing boom played a major role in the state's real estate collapse.
ATTORNEY GENERAL CANDIDATESThe five major candidates for attorney general:
PAM BONDI
• Republican
• Residence: Tampa
• Age:44
• Experience: Prosecutor with the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office, part-time legal expert for Fox News.
HOLLY BENSON
• Republican
• Residence: Pensacola
• Age: 39
• Experience: Former municipal bond attorney, former state representative, and former secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
JEFF KOTTKAMP
• Republican
• Residence: Cape Coral
• Age: 49
• Experience: Current lieutenant governor, former state representative, former attorney with Morgan & Morgan.
DAVE ARONBERG
• Democrat
• Residence: Greenacres
• Age: 39
• Experience: Current state senator, former Florida assistant attorney general for economic crimes.
DAN GELBER
• Democrat
• Residence: Miami
• Age: 49
• Experience: Current state senator, former chief counsel and staff director for the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Yet for the five candidates running to be the state's next attorney general, the issue has not been on the radar.
The lack of attention to mortgage fraud is striking. Florida has led the nation in mortgage fraud every year since 2006. A Herald-Tribune investigation uncovered more than 50,000 potentially illegal cases at a cost of $10 billion. Homes and other properties bought and quickly resold, often by real estate insiders, fed the glut of bank failures, foreclosures and inflated property values that have combined to devastate Florida's economy.
Current Attorney General Bill McCollum has faced harsh criticism for doing little to crack down on the illegal deals.
It was widely expected that those running for attorney general would make the issue a priority.
They have not. Four candidates for the state's top legal office do not even mention mortgage fraud
