Democratic candidate for Congress Randy Bryce just paid off a 15-year-old personal debt after the campaign was contacted by the media. For Bryce, who is running in the Democratic Primary in the first congressional district hoping to take on House Speaker Paul Ryan, this is the second delinquent debt that just happened to get paid after his campaign for congress began.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice reported Tuesday that Rhonda Slechta, a former girlfriend of Bryce, reached out to the newspaper after learning Bryce had just paid off delinquent child support the candidate owed shortly after announcing he was running for Congress. Slechta loaned Bryce $1,776 and, despite a court judgement against Bryce in 2004, was never repaid.
After the newspaper contacted Bryce’s campaign for comment, an attorney with the Democratic Party reached out to Slechta to notify her she was going to be repaid with interest. She received a check for $4,245 over Thanksgiving, according to Bice. It is unknown if the attorney with the Democratic Party has had to reach out to any other lenders.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story does not make clear if Bryce had the $4,245 and just was not paying Slechta back the loan, or if the funds to pay off the debt came from another source. It is unknown whether Bice asked the Bryce campaign to elaborate on the source of the funds used to pay off the debt.
Previously, Bryce paid off $1,257 in child support debt on Aug. 31, two months after his campaign for congress was announced. It is unknown if Bryce had the money before the campaign started and was just not paying the child support or where the funds to pay off the debt came from.
Citing the number of issues that have surfaced regarding the Bryce campaign, from not paying child support to driving with a revoked driver’s license, Chris Martin of the Republican National Congressional Committee asked, “Who knew Randy Bryce could fit so many skeletons under that hard hat?”
