Daniel Bice: Bryce had delinquent child support for 2 years,
Randy Bryce, the union ironworker with the viral campaign ad targeting House Speaker Paul Ryan, has a simple explanation for why he’s garnering national attention and loads of campaign cash.
“I just said my story,” explained Bryce, a Democrat hoping to challenge Ryan, a Janesville Republican, next year.
Well, here’s the rest of Bryce’s story. The 52-year-old military veteran, who has featured his 11-year-old son in that online ad and in fundraising letters, was delinquent on paying his child support for nearly two years.
The state placed a lien on Bryce’s meager property holdings in September 2015 because he had fallen behind on his child support payments. Bryce paid off the $1,257 debt on Aug. 31, two months after launching his congressional bid.
Campaign aides said the Democratic candidate fell behind when money was tight but that Bryce and his ex-wife made sure they met all of their son’s obligations. Based on his child support rate of $471 per month, approved in April 2014, Bryce was more than 21⁄2 months behind on his payments. He is now up to date. Bryce’s primary opponent, Cathy
Myers, said this is no small matter. Myers and Bryce face off for the Democratic nomination in August, with the winner taking on Ryan.
The Janesville School Board member said she is a single mother who struggled to provide for two now-grown children.
“When my ex-husband got behind on his child support, I had to take a second job,” Myers said. “I put my personal interests aside and focused all my attention on providing for my family.”
Along with failing to pay his child support on time, Bryce has had other financial problems over the years, including bankruptcy in 1999 and owing more than $1,700 on a personal loan from 2004.
Bryce’s campaign countered by suggesting that his financial problems show that he can identify with people suffering financial hardships.
“Unlike Ryan, he knows what it’s like to struggle and will approach his job from a place of deep understanding as opposed to zero empathy,” said Bryce campaign manager David Keith.
In the third quarter of the year, Bryce, who has the backing of a number of top Dems, raised $1.4 million and had $1 million cash on hand, while Myers raised $82,000 and had $20,000 cash on hand.
By comparison, Ryan’s campaign had $10 million cash on hand.
Bryce, who said he didn’t have time to talk to No Quarter, wrote and got published a 740-word piece on HuffPost this weekend accusing the “Republican attack machine” for the questions being raised about his financial problems.
Explaining his unpaid child support, he wrote, “I know what it’s like to look your child in the eyes and have to explain that your job has changed and times were going to be tight for a while.”
Republicans knew nothing about Bryce’s difficulties paying child support when first contacted for comment last week.
Chris Martin, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, questioned how Bryce, who has called himself the “Iron Stache,” could be touting his hard-hat credentials while tweeting about hanging out with comedian Chelsea Handler.
Martin also chided Bryce for supposedly putting some of the blame on Republicans for his personal bankruptcy.
Records show Bryce filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1999, listing $3,928 in assets and $6,545 in liabilities. He had just recently taken a job as an ironworker for Oneida Erecting in Eagle, earning slightly more than $20,000 a year.
Bryce said in his HuffPost column that he had to seek bankruptcy protection because “my mounting medical bills and other debt became too much to bear.” He is a cancer survivor.
According to his filings, Bryce’s biggest debts were phone and electric bills. His only medical bill was for $125 to Aurora Medical Services.
The court discharged his case in 2000, meaning it wiped out all of his unsecured debts.
Also, Bryce is listed on state online records as owing a default judgment of $1,776 to another individual from 2004.
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.