Did a subprime mortgage bring down Senator John Ensign?

It looks like it. Alex Pareene over at his other online home explains:

Why did Republican Senator John Ensign’s sexual dalliance with a married former staffer get revealed now? Because of subprime mortgages and the Nevada housing crisis!

Ensign’s affair was with Cynthia Hampton, his reelection campaign treasurer. Hampton’s husband was an administrative assistant, which is awkward. Even more awkward: the Hamptons are broke, and maybe defaulting on their shitty mortgage.

via Gawker – Senatorial Affair Revealed Thanks to Housing Crisis – John Ensign.

Alex is pointing to a Politico article that says the not extremely well-compensated Hamptons had a mortgage of $1.2 million on their Las Vegas home with an interest rate of 8%.

But it gets better. According to a TPM Muckraker discussion thread back in 2008, the Hamptons were trying to sell the house. And the thread points to an assessor’s valuation of the property which appeared to show that the Hamptons were losing a lot of their investment in the house. And here’s more from the Las Vegas Review Journal:

In May 2008, the two abruptly left Ensign’s employ and Washington, returning to Las Vegas and the Summerlin home not far from where the Ensigns live.

According to county records, the Hamptons purchased the five-bedroom, 4,360-square-foot property in 2004 for $1.23 million.

Zillow.com, a Web site than analyzes real estate information, now prices their home in Summerlin’s Trails Village at $862,000.
Since leaving, sources said, Doug Hampton has worked as a consultant for Allegiant Air and for November Inc., the political consulting firm that runs Ensign’s campaigns.

So if it’s true that Mr. Hampton sought a large amount of money from Ensign, could it be that as a result of losing his job in Ensign’s shop last year, he was at risk of losing his house? Working as a consultant might not cover the spread all that much, especially with the senator not up for re-election any time soon, and his possible 2012 presidential plans a long way off.

You’ve all heard the truism that bank robbers rob banks because that’s where the money is. Perhaps instead of a bank, Mr. Hampton saw the senator as where the money was.