Questions raised about payment to Randy Bryce's ex
"This does sound very similar to the Stormy Daniels thing." Mike Maistelman Milwaukee lawyer who has represented Democrats and Republicans on campaign finance issues
Congressional candidate Randy Bryce owed money to his ex-girlfriend for more than a decade.
That debt — which totaled about $4,200 by late last year — has since been paid.
What's unclear is exactly who paid it.
Bryce's ex-girlfriend, Rhonda Slechta, told the Journal Sentinel last November that she was surprised when she received the check for $4,245.73.
But it turns out the check wasn't from Bryce — it came from the Milwaukee-based law firm Halling & Cayo. It was delivered by Jeremy Levinson, an attorney with the firm who has represented the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Bryce campaign spokeswoman Julia Savel referred questions about the check to Levinson, who said there was nothing improper about the payment.
"I have been assisting the campaign on a variety of issues involving Wisconsin-based research and Wisconsin election law from the start," Levinson said in an email. "As for my work for Randy Bryce in a personal capacity, invoices issued to him reflect fees and costs incurred and each was promptly paid with personal funds."
Levinson added, "Invoicing and payment for work for Randy individually were handled entirely separately from the campaign invoices and payments."
Bryce's campaign paid Halling & Cayo $7,703.73 on Jan. 30, but officials say that sum was unrelated to the payment made to his ex-girlfriend.
The campaign finance limit for congressional candidates is $2,700 per election under Federal Election Commission guidelines, and candidates are prohibited from using campaign funds for personal use. Corporations are prohibited from making contributions to federal candidates.
That means a corporation like Halling & Cayo is barred from contributing to Bryce's campaign, and $4,245.73 would be over the primary's campaign finance limit.
Regardless, Bryce and other candidates can't use campaign funds to pay personal expenses.But federal candidates may receive salaries from their campaign committees.
Slechta lent Bryce about $1,776 in 2002, when he was a down-on-hisluck ironworker who was emerging from bankruptcy. Slechta said she lent Bryce enough money to buy a used car from a neighbor so he could get to work regularly, adding that she didn't know at the time he was twice ticketed for driving with a revoked license.
The pair soon broke up, and Slechta took the matter to small claims court. After Bryce didn't show up, a Milwaukee County judge granted Slechta a default judgment in 2004.
"I've been very open about the fact that like so many others just trying to get by, at times I was downright broke," Bryce said last year. "I'm not proud of the fact I've had to borrow money from people who were kind enough to help me out when money was tight, like Rhonda."
Mike Maistelman, a Milwaukee lawyer who has represented Democrats and Republicans on campaign finance issues, compared the situation to the $130,000 payment Stormy Daniels received from President Donald Trump's longtime attorney.
"It strikes me as a little odd to hire a lawyer to have to pay off a debt, as opposed to just writing a check and sending it to his ex-girlfriend," Maistelman said. "This does sound very similar to the Stormy Daniels thing."
He added, "Why would somebody who can't pay $1,000 back from a car loan then hire a lawyer to pay the loan off ?"
Maistelman said that if the payment came from the firm's trust checking account, it would indicate that the candidate paid the firm first and the firm then paid the candidate’s debt with the candidate’s money. It becomes more problematic if the law firm used its general checking account to pay off a client's debt, he added.
This isn't the first time Bryce's debts have come up during the campaign.
In August, Bryce paid off a lien on his property by paying $1,257 in back child support.
Bryce has also been facing questions about his nine arrests, including a 1998 arrest for driving under the influence.
The handling of the payment drew criticism from Bryce's primary opponent, Janesville School Board member Cathy Myers.
"If Randy is taking his donors' money, given for the purpose of beating Paul Ryan, and using it to pay off old court judgments, that's terrible," Myers said.
Republicans called on Bryce to explain the check, as well as recently reported payments from a consulting firm owned and operated by former Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate.
Bryce made a little less than $19,000 from three metal fabricators between Jan. 1, 2017, and April 15 of this year. He also reported receiving at least $5,000 from Tate's firm.