Adler's Hunger for Campaign Cash Paved Way for Subprime Mortgage Crisis in New Jersey

After receiving $2,500 from special interests he weakened predatory lending laws that resulted in thousands of home foreclosures

          Mount Holly, September 30, 2008-After voting to pass one of the toughest anti-predatory lending laws in the nation, career Trenton politician John Adler began to receive a series of well-timed campaign contributions from subprime mortgage lenders and their lobbyists, which resulted in Adler introducing a new law - only weeks after the first one took effect - that rolled back the consumer protections his new special interest friends opposed, helping to pave the way for the current economic crisis gripping New Jersey and the country, charged job-creating businessman and decorated combat veteran Chris Myers (NJ-3) today.

          The Wall Street Journal detailed Adler's pay-to-play scheme back in a December 31, 2007 article titled "Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess," while an analysis of New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJ ELEC) records and a timeline of Adler's activity in the legislature reveal the ugly side of how business is really done in Trenton.

          "John Adler sold out the very middle-class families he claims to represent for thousands in campaign contributions from subprime mortgage special interests and their lobbyists," said Myers, who added that the Senate Democratic Majority PAC received an additional $10,000 during 2004.  "The Wall Street Journal details exactly how Adler rolled back consumer protections in the original law to benefit unscrupulous mortgage lenders that contributed to his campaign; lenders who then turned around and preyed on middle class families chasing the dream of home ownership by selling them loans they could not afford.  Now thousands of those people are in financial ruin and our economy is in the midst of an historic crisis."

          The key change sought by the subprime mortgage special interests - and delivered by Adler and even some Republicans in the Legislature - was the elimination of a requirement that forced lenders to be prove a "tangible net benefit" to the borrower when selling a loan.  An article titled "The Subprime Swindle" in the liberal publication, The Nation, detailed how removing that requirement in both New Jersey and Georgia allowed predatory lenders to sell mortgages to people that were destined to default on the loan, disproportionately affecting minorities and the poor, while subprime lenders got filthy rich.

          "The facts are as undeniable as they are troubling," said Myers, who cited a recent Star-Ledger article reporting home foreclosures in New Jersey are up 140% from this time last year.  "John Adler took campaign contributions from the subprime mortgage special interests and then returned the favor by doing their bidding in Trenton and watering down consumer protections that opened the floodgates for the subprime mortgage crisis that's helped to destroy our economy."

          "Senator Adler needs to explain to voters exactly how he voted for a law that protected consumers from unscrupulous mortgage lenders in 2003, then took thousands in campaign contributions over the next few months from those lenders and their lobbyists, and then repealed the original law in 2004 and replaced it with one that directly benefited his new campaign contributors at the expense of middle-class New Jerseyans.  I think the whole deal stinks and Senator Adler has some real explaining to do."

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