Former Broker to Run for CT Secty of State

Richard Abbate draws on prior mortgage experiences

September 13, 2005

By PATRICK CROWLEY

Abbate, a Republican who is also a former race car driver, said it was timing — or more appropriately the times — that led to his exit from the mortgage business in the mid 1990s.

Working first for Citicorp and then Fleet Bank in and around New Haven, Conn., Abbate recalls a moribund local real estate market.

“The market was nothing like it is today,” Abbate said in an interview. “It was somewhat depressed back then. There was nothing terribly exciting about it.”

Abbate said he doesn’t recall what sort of loan volume he generated while brokering loans from 1989 to 1995, but he hints that he didn’t set any sales records.

“The marketplace I was handling, I was looking at typical (residential) loans from $100,000 to $150,000,” he said. “I did okay. I enjoyed it and I maintained a number of friendships. I recently got my license as a Realtor, and I’m working with some of the same people I used to call on.

“I’m glad I stayed in touch with people” from the mortgage business, he said.

Because what Abbate did take from the mortgage business is how to attract people, interact with them and build relationships — a trait now serving him well in his political career.

“The one thing I would pick out that I learned from the mortgage business is dealing with people,” he said from his home in Cheshire, Conn. “The reason I like the mortgage business is that it’s a people oriented business.

“And I know this sounds a little corn ball…but you’re helping people with the basic need of putting a roof over their head,” Abbate said. “I felt good about that.”

In the mid-1990s, with the influence of technology and the Internet on mortgage lending, the business lost some of its personality, he said.

“It became a number oriented business,” he said. “The focus wasn’t on people…it was on volume and numbers. Other opportunities presented themselves and I left the business.”

Before working in the mortgage business, Abbate raced sports cars — first as a hobby and then professionally. He was also economic development director in the city of New Haven, where he testified against public officials convicted on charges of corruption.

“I was under a lot of pressure to take care of politically connected people,” he said. “It made me sick. I fought it as long as I could and I finally just gave up and left.”

After leaving the mortgage brokerage business Abbate became a registrar in Connecticut, which is an election and voter official. He is now president of the Registrars of Voters of Association of Connecticut, a statewide professional group of registrars.

Though he loves public service and the possibility of serving in state government, Abbate said he would consider stepping aside if a more qualified Republican gets in the 2006 secretary of state primary.

“I got in the race because there were no Republicans,” he said. “But if it comes to a situation where there is a vote for the nomination, I’m personally not inclined to ask people to pay their money to support my ego.”