Wednesday, August 25, 2010

More coming out about Schweikert's predatory dealings

During the primary season in CD5, one of the Republican candidates for the nomination sent out a hit piece targeting Schweikert's vulture investment fund that targeted "distressed homeowners" facing fiscal difficulty in Arizona's depressed economy.

Greg Patterson of Espresso Pundit led the chorus of support for Schweikert, criticizing Salvino for criticizing a fellow Republican for doing something that they all consider to be acceptable.

The matter quickly faded in the tumult of a heavily contested primary.  There were always dozens of other things clamoring for the attention of voters.

Well, it turns out that Patterson and the other R voters in CD5 should have paid closer attention.

Much closer.

As this website, sponsored by the Arizona Democratic Party, documents, Schweikert's vulture fund entered already devastated neighborhoods (full list of properties here) and driven them further downhill (long list of citations from the City of Phoenix here).

Part of Schweikert's campaign platform is that he is running to stand "up for Arizona values."

OK, I'll accept that from him.  All he has to do is show me where the initiating and profiting from the predatory destruction of Arizona's neighborhoods for fun and profit is an "Arizona value."

More on this later.

"Your Loss, His Gain." Worth a visit.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How stupid is Schweikert! The site shows that he has been doing this basically since he announced he is running against Mitchell again. So he has been doing this for over a year and a half. How did he think this was a good employment choice when you are running for Congress?

This might be legal but we can all agree its wrong and honestly it really makes you question the guys judgment.

Anonymous said...

This is ridiculous!! This move makes Schweikert unelectable, this is just so damaging to the campaign. How dumb could he be to start a business like that right after he announces he is running for Congress again? This action seriously makes me doubt his judgment and character. I just can't believe he would do something like that and claim he wants to make the economy better by doing something like this.

Anonymous said...

This is terrible. I knew these vulture investors were around but I didn't realize one of them was running for Congress! It's not even that this is necessarily illegal. It's just wrong and detrimental to the housing market. You'd think that the silver lining in the upside down housing market would be that first time buyers would get a cheap first home. But it's actually wealthy investors like this that snatch the houses up and let them sit empty until they appreciate in value while people are being kicked out of their homes. That's not what I consider to be Arizona values and not American values!

Unknown said...

Stop drinking the tainted kool-aid folks.. There are a whole 4 citations and they are for the same property. Also what is not being mentioned is that Schweikert bought these houses from the bank, not the homeowners. They houses had already been foreclosed. So what he is doing actually provides a service. He rents them out to people who can not qualify for a home. Like a person who lost their job and has a foreclosure on their record. Or the single mom/dad who went through a nasty divorce and needs a place to raise their kids. There are a ton of management companies out there. Why aren't we bagging on them? As far as first time home buyers... There are still plenty of houses to buy, Schweikert didn't buy them all up. Also,