“It’s people like Lisa Epstein and foreclosure-focused websites like 4closurefraud.org and foreclosurehamlet.org that have kept him in the loop on foreclosure news.”

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Foreclosure Victims Aim To Take Over County Courthouses

Solutions to the ongoing foreclosure crisis are virtually absent from the national political debate, but in Florida, one of the states hardest-hit by the housing crunch, several homeowners who have seen crisis firsthand are running for local office on anti-Wall Street platforms.

Lisa Epstein, a foreclosure victim-turned-activist, has launched a bid to unseat the local Palm Beach County Clerk in Florida, running on the slogan “a wave of change.”

She is joined by at least two other anti-foreclosure fraud activists in Florida making runs for county clerk positions, the office in charge of property records. (A fourth dropped out after launching a campaign.)

Epstein will have the backing of one of the state’s most popular progressive figures, former Rep. Alan Grayson (D), injecting an unusual amount of energy into a race that is often sleepy and frequently uncontested.

The article then goes on to say:

The primary is August 14th. “I’m very happy to see real progressives running at any position on the ballot, top, middle or bottom,” Grayson, who is running again for Congress, told HuffPost. “And Lisa is absolutely right to observe that officials of all kinds have been rubber-stamping papers that deprive thousands of families of their homes. When foreclosure fraud is rampant, then a county clerk can’t afford to be a yes-man. Lisa understands that.”

Matt Stoller, a former Grayson aide and an influential online progressive organizer, is advising her on her campaign. “Lisa Epstein is one of the nation’s leading forensic investigators of foreclosure fraud and the real estate property records system,” he said.

The incumbent clerk, however, says that Epstein was only able to uncover as much fraud as she has as a result of the transparent and meticulous keeping of records.

“One of the reasons my opponent has all the information she has is because of the way I keep my records,” Sharon Bock, Palm Beach County’s Clerk and Comptroller, told HuffPost. “It not only worked, it worked for Lisa, it worked for Lynn, by allowing them to expose a system that was incorrect. If I had taken an advocacy position — changed something, sent something back — they wouldn’t have been able to expose it.”

Really? Lisa and Lynn were able to detect the fraud because Bock kept good records? That’s like Madoff saying his ponzi scheme was exposed because, oh never mind. This is too ridiculous to even comment on…

But once again, Bock says it ain’t my problem…

“The question becomes, do we all become advocates? If we do that, what then is the clerk? Am I a policymaker or am I a keeper of the people’s records,” she said. “By statutory authority, I am not a policymaker, [I’m] strictly administerial. My role is solely to protect the integrity of the public’s records and public’s funds. To do that I must remain independent and neutral.”

Can’t wait to get Bock’s definition of “protect the integrity of the public’s records and public’s funds.

The records are littered with fraud and 70% of the public funds are invested in mortgage backed related products…

You can check out the article in full over at the Huffington Post here…

Lisa Epstein for Clerk of Circuit Court Palm Beach County Florida in 2012!

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4closureFraud.org