CONCORD, N.H. – Rachel Brown Sanborn, a financial planner in Wolfeboro, has followed Kelly Ayotte’s career and even volunteered to work on the Republican’s U.S. Senate campaign. She’s also been following the fallout from a failed mortgage firm in nearby Meredith.

Now she’s interested in seeing what Ayotte, a popular candidate who was attorney general when complaints about Financial Resources Mortgage surfaced, will say when questioned by legislators Monday.

“How involved was she in her office? How much did they know, and if they did know anything, how come nothing was acted on,” said Brown Sanborn, 28, an independent. “How would she deal with things differently, or how does she take responsibility for it? Those are the sorts of questions I have, and I have heard from other people who are interested in possibly voting for her.”

Ayotte, who has successfully prosecuted a death penalty case and other high-profile crimes, is used to being in the public eye. Political analysts believe she will be well prepared to handle questions, but say that ultimately it will be up to voters to decide whether she succeeds.

Brown Sanborn expects to keep supporting Ayotte, but said if Ayotte offers indirect answers to lawmakers, “it would give me a lot of questions about her.”

Since Financial Resources Mortgage closed abruptly in November, dozens of former investors have sued, and federal authorities have brought criminal fraud charges against its former president, Scott Farah, and an assistant, Donald Dodge. Farah has been accused of pooling investor funds to pay other loans, paying returns to other investors, and using investor money to pay personal and company expenses.

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Ayotte, who was attorney general from 2004 to 2009, agreed to testify before the joint Senate-House commerce committees reviewing the state’s oversight of the firm following an investigative report last month by Attorney General Michael Delaney. Her predecessor, Peter Heed, who served from 2003-2004, also is expected to testify.

Delaney pointed out “significant failures” among the attorney general’s office, the Banking Department and the Bureau of Securities Regulation for not doing a better job of investigating complaints against the company, which date to 2000. Delaney and the heads of the Banking Department and Bureau of Securities Regulation have testified before legislators.

“That matter is not one I have a personal involvement in,” Ayotte said Wednesday about the firm after filing as a candidate. “Hopefully, I can assist the committee in any way in making sure that those types of financial crimes don’t happen again.”

The questions about what Ayotte knew and when have been echoed by former clients of Financial Resources Mortgage.

They’ve also served as fodder for Rep. Paul Hodes, the lone Democratic candidate for Senate. Recent polls show him losing to Ayotte and about even with or losing to other Republicans in the Sept. 14 primary.

Ken Miller of Amherst, 72, who lost $762,100 in loans to Financial Resources Mortgage, said he doesn’t understand how Ayotte could not have been involved.

“It just doesn’t make sense to be the top dog and not understand that this company was a real problem,” he said.

Political analyst Dean Spiliotes said when he first heard Ayotte say she had no personal involvement in the matter, “my first reaction was, ‘Well, should you have.’

 


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