Eight More Senators Disclose Their Mortgages

(The Politico)  The number of senators refusing to name their home mortgage lenders continues to decline. In the wake of a Politico report June 24 that 23 senators failed to provide information in response to our survey on home lenders, eight more offices provided details, bringing the number of non-responders down to just 15 holdouts.

The new information comes from the offices of Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who says his home purchase was financed by First Home Mortgage; Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) who says he has a mortgage from U.S. Bank on his home in Minnesota and rents a place in Washington; Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who says she has mortgages on homes in Texas and Virginia financed by U.S. Trust: Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who says her Virginia mortgage was negotiated by her husband with Chase; Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) who says he has loans from Chase and GMAC; Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who says she holds mortgages with HSBC and Bank of Bloomfield Hills; Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who says he has mortgages with GreenPoint and Bank of America; and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who says he has a mortgage with New Mexico Bank and Trust of Santa Fe.

The new responders all said they received no special terms for their lenders.

Politico’s survey was prompted by disclosures that two senators, Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), had received VIP mortgage rates arranged by Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial, a large mortgage lender caught up in the subprime mortgage collapse. 

The entire list of responses can be found here.