On the window seal in Michael Petrie's office at P/R Mortgage and Investment Corp. are campaign signs for President Bush and Sen. Evan Bayh, as well as photos of other politicians. As chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade association for the real estate finance industry, he attended both the Democratic and Republican national conventions last summer.

While he has personal views on politics, Petrie promises to remain bipartisan as association chairman. He and his wife will represent the association at an inauguration party for President Bush and later return to Washington to lobby issues for the group.

Petrie is president of P/R Mortgage, a company that has made $1.5 billion in mortgage loans, and has been involved in the MBA for 21 years.

As for serving as chairman, Petrie says, "You want to leave your mark. The intent of what we do is to set policy. I think by becoming chairman you have more impact on the policy you want to put forth."

Question: What do you like best about MBA?

Answer: I think the best thing about the organization is you can have an impact on programs and products that help consumers. We spend a lot of time lobbying with regulatory industries to make this a better industry.

Q: What is your role as chairman of the MBA?

A: We created a new three-year strategic plan. My job is to implement the first year.

We want to increase membership over the three years from 2,900 member companies to 3,500. We are going to increase education offerings. As for our capital assets program, which is a grass-roots program, we have 6,000 individuals who actively participate in lobbying with MBA. We want to take that to 10,000.

We also have a political action committee, which for years was at $400,000. Since last cycle, we had over $1 million. We'll take that to $1.2 million in the next two years.

Q: What would you like to see happen?

A: In regards to the Federal Housing Administration, we want to make sure it's around for another 70 years.

We have a piece of legislation that we think will help it be more sustainable.

I'd like to see legislation that strengthens the regulatory ability to make sure that if there is a problem, it is caught early and at the same time further define their mission so they will stay in the secondary market.

Q: What makes you a good leader for the MBA?

A: Wealth of experience and passion for the work. I really enjoy it.

As you go through positions of leadership and chair various committees, you gain. I have developed legislation and testified before congressional committees.

With the experience, I won't be walking in blindly and can do a good job for members.

The fact I'm a multifamily lender and I deal with FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I'm better prepared to deal with the issues.

Q: What legislation have you worked on?

A: For a number of years, I worked on an issue in regards to credit subsidies.

In 1990, the Credit Reform Act was passed. It stated that any time an entity of the federal government issues an obligation, the federal government is required to determine if there is enough cash flow to cover that obligation or they have to appropriate money to cover the obligation.

Whenever you have FHA insurance with a loan, that's an obligation. There's a premium with that.

If the premium covers the obligation, they don't need an appropriation.

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