Will Bad Mortgages Hurt the GOP?

If, as I suspect it will, 2008 turns out to be a very bad year for housing and the number of widespread foreclosures continues to increase, I suspect that the GOP will be hurt. As Time magazine reports here (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1685301,00.html many in the GOP has been very resistant to passing regulations that might have avoided some of the worse subprime loans. Since the housing market hits directly at voters' sense of security, the Democrats need to focus on this issue as one of the big stories of the campaign cycle. Here are some story highlights:

As the subprime mortgage crisis has worsened and Democrats have moved to pass legislation to the address the problem, they are accusing their G.O.P. counterparts of doing too little to prevent the predicament. The issue could become a potent campaign issue in '08, as the Democrats have targeted several vulnerable G.O.P. members, including Walberg, who voted against last week's bill.

The Republicans "were asleep at the wheel while this problem was heading straight at us," said Congressman Chris Van Hollen, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democratic candidates. "This is affecting people across the country in Michigan, in Florida, in Ohio — all important swing states. This will be part of the debate about the economy overall. And people who ignore it do so at their own peril."

Democrats accuse the Administration and Republican-led Congress of ignoring the problem until it was too late. "This was the result of the Republican philosophy that you never have regulation, so yes, they could've done something," said House financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank. Frank blames Republican leaders for killing a bipartisan measure to tighten regulations on subprime lending in 2005.

Democrats have already ramped up the pressure on Walberg and his colleagues. "Even as Americans go deeper and deeper into debt with mortgages from shady lenders, Representative Tim Walberg is protecting predatory lenders at the expense of America's middle-class families," said Jennifer Crider, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Representative Walberg clearly values his special interest pals more than middle-class Americans struggling to keep their homes."

After Walberg's narrow victory in 2006 (a race in which he outspent his opponent by $1.2 million to $46,000), the Democrats this time have recruited a top-tier opponent: State Senator Mark Shauer, who has championed the predatory lending issue in the state legislature, co-sponsoring legislation that would tighten oversight on loan officers and support programs to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. Schauer plans on campaigning on the issue and accuses Walberg of turning his back on people in need. "The people in Michigan are struggling, and we're doing what we can to help at the state level," Schauer said. "But Washington and my opponent need to step up."