Delegate Wendy Gooditis (D-Clarke), who is a part-time real estate agent, filed a bill HB 570 that had a lot of folks in Richmond scratching their heads. Normally, you can figure out who is behind a certain legislative proposal by figuring out who it benefits.
So when freshman Delegate Gooditis filed a bill mandating that all settlement agents are “presumed to be competent” to handle settlements of federally-backed mortgages without due licensure and training, many folks thought that the real estate industry or the home builders might be behind it.
Except they weren’t. As a matter of fact they opposed it along with other business and consumer protection groups. When incompetent settlement agents who lack experience or training handle real estate closings, many people can get screwed: home purchasers, real estate agents, bank loan officials, home builders, and even American taxpayers who have their government standing being federally-backed mortgages.
So, why would Delegate Gooditis file such a bad bill?
Capitol Hill sources have confirmed to The Republican Standard that Delegate Gooditis has told at least two people that Democrat Delegate Marcus Simon (D-Fall Church) asked Godets to carry the bill.
Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church) just happens to run Ekko Title, a company that could hypothetically make more money by hiring settlement agents without proper training and experience. Of course, there is a ready explanation as to why a delegate would ask another delegate to carry their legislation — Simon wanted to keep his fingerprints off this legislative proposal.
But, wait there’s more.
One of Marcus Simon’s most recent hires is none other than Senator Jennifer Wexton (D-Loudoun) who is a lawyer with virtually zero experience in real estate law and closings after a career handling criminal law matters. Marcus Simon hired Jennifer Wexton to be the Office Manager of Ekko Title’s brand new Loudoun County Office — the equivalent of the Washington Nationals hiring a new general manager who knows nothing about baseball.
So, Gooditis and Simon wanted this new Ekko Title Office Manager to “presumed to be competent” as a matter of law.
And why would Ekko Title want to have such an inexperienced lawyer running its new Loudoun Office?
Maybe it is because to Marcus Simon, electing Democrats is even more important than ensuring the integrity of his own business.
It’s no secret that Democratic power brokers in Northern Virginia have put up Jennifer Wexton to challenge Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (VA-10) and desperately needed to find a place to “park and feed” Wexton with a salary while she campaigns full time for Congress. Looks like Wexton found a roost.
And what’s worse — giving Wexton a “presumed to be competent” label was all part of the scheme.
Luckily, Republicans in the House General Laws Committee connected the dots on this Simon-Gooditis-Wexton scheme and struck the bill from their docket last week.
Just another week for the Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates. While nothing illegal happened per se, the washing of hands among Democratic lawmakers certainly points to a sort of behavior that could best be described as… swampy.
