Senate candidates highlight efforts during housing crisis

The Senate campaigns of Joe Heck and Catherine Cortez Masto are highlighting in separate ads the work each candidate did to help Nevadans during the housing crisis.

Both campaigns released ads on Friday with testimonials from constituents about the help they received in the midst of the housing crisis. Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation during the Great Recession, which battered the state’s economy.

U.S. Rep. Heck, R-Nev., represents the 3rd Congressional District, and Cortez Masto, a Democratic candidate, was Nevada’s attorney general during the housing crisis.

The two candidates are running for the open seat of outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Heck’s campaign said he hired a Realtor as a housing case worker in district office and has handled 705 housing cases. Out of those cases, 631 families, or 89.5 percent, kept their homes, the campaign said.

“I still have a roof over my head, and that’s all due to Doctor Heck,” one constituent says in the ad about Heck, who is also a physician.

Another says: “Me and my family still have the house today because of Joe Heck. Joe Heck fought the banks. He fought for us.”

The 30-second spot will air throughout Nevada through Thursday as part of a $420,000 ad buy.

Cortez Masto’s one-minute spot features Lola Orvik, a Henderson resident who fell behind on her mortgage after the market crashed.

Orvik says in the ad that she called Cortez Masto’s office after her bank wouldn’t let her refinance her home loan.

“She took on the big banks and I was immediately treated with respect and fairly,” Orvik says in the spot. “Catherine Cortez Masto not only saved my home for me. Catherine gave me my dignity back. She gave me a life back. I will always be thankful for that.”

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904. Find @BenBotkin1 on Twitter.