According to a conservative PAC, Republican House candidate David Trott is one of the five people you meet in Hell. Trott, who is challenging first-term GOP Rep. Kerry Bentivolio in the GOP primary for Michigan’s 11th district, runs a law firm that specializes in mortgage foreclosures. In a new ad, a Virginia-based group called Freedom’s Defense Fund highlights a foreclosure Trott’s firm processed in 2011 that left a 101-year-old homeowner, Texana Hollis, out on the street:
The eviction highlighted in the ad came about after the woman’s son fell behind on his property tax payments and ignored repeated warnings. But there was a happy ending: Detroit Free-Press columnist and airport bookstore king Mitch Albom bought the house and transferred it back to Hollis.
As I reported in January, Trott has a hand in every step of the foreclosure process—he even owns the newspaper where foreclosure notices are required to be posted. But while the ad itself is brutal, it probably won’t do much damage, because Freedom’s Defense Fund is only spending $15,000 to run it on local cable channels. That’s consistent with a group that spends much of the money it raises paying Washington-area direct-mail outfits. Of the $1.6 million FDF spent in 2013, just $120,000 went toward candidates or independent expenditures. As Think Progress notes, $1.2 million went to fundraising services, which means the PAC is spending most of the money it raises on raising more money.
