From the sprawling front porch to the columns inspired by his favorite show — HBO mob series “The Sopranos” — Thomas Bromwell was proud of his home.

But when construction costs and $3,000 mortgage payments cast the former state senator into debt, he parlayed his political influence into cash. Now facing almost certain prison time and $2 million in forfeited cash and property, the once-powerful Democrat is fighting to keep the prized possession that started it all: his home.

“We’ve offered to give the government the amount of cash that would be equal to the amount of equity in the home,” attorney Barry Pollack said Tuesday after Bromwell pleaded guilty to racketeering and filing a false tax return. “Whether or not they can make the mortgage payments, they would at least take a shot at it.”

In exchange for lucrative state contracts, prosecutors said contractors gave Bromwell more than $85,000 in construction work on the 5,000-square-foot home in Parkville. Last valued at $737,000, according to state records, Pollack said Bromwell has little equity in the home he shares with his wife and children.

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The home was a frequent topic in recorded conversations taped by undercover informants during the six-year investigation. At a dinner in November 2001, Bromwell bragged of doing much of the construction work himself, from setting granite to hanging drywall. He called the project his “wife’s retirement.”

But the pool, he said, would have to wait until next year. Money was getting tight.

By November 2002, when the informant suggested investigators were on to the scheme, Bromwell seemed desperate.

“Christ, I had to, I had to take a home equity loan,” he said. “I still owe people for building my house.”

jmalarkey@baltimoreexaminer.com

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