A candidate for Texas House is drowning in debt after a judge ruled he must repay a $200,000 loan plus payment penalties.
According to documents obtained by Texas Scorecard, House District 106 candidate Clint Bedsole of Frisco was sued after failing to repay a loan he guaranteed for his custom golf cart business, Epic Carts LLC. Bedsole is running in the Republican primary against Frisco businessman Jared Patterson for the open seat being vacated by State Rep. Pat Fallon (R–Little Elm) as he runs for the Texas Senate.
Bedsole first obtained the loan from Community National Bank in September of 2015 with payment in full due after one year. After apparently failing to repay the loan, it was renewed with a small rate hike in October of 2016 with the balance due in September of 2017.
When Bedsole missed that deadline as well, the bank filed suit against him and received a default judgement against him for “unpaid principal in the amount of $196,449.65, plus accrued but unpaid interest and fees in the amount of $2,491.11 through December 21,2017, plus daily interest in the amount of $30.01 from December 21, 2017 through the date of final judgement, plus reasonable attorney’s fees of $2,500.00, for a total of $201,440.76.”
The default judgment resulted after Bedsole failed to answer the lawsuit.
Bedsole had already loaned his campaign $30,000, so the default judgment is sure to present an additional obstacle.
Voters should also be made aware of a couple curious coincidences concerning the loan.
Out of all the banks in Texas, Bedsole decided to take out his loan from Community National Bank and Trust, a bank whose closest location is more than an hour from his house in Frisco. State Rep. Byron Cook (R–Corsicana) sits on the board of Community National Bank.
And it’s also notable that, despite Bedsole failing to pay back the loan on the extended timeline, the bank didn’t file suit against him until shortly after Cook announced he would be retiring from the Texas Legislature rather than seeking re-election.
When the bank did sue a few weeks later, it was Corsicana-based Terry Jacobson, Cook’s attorney, who filed the lawsuit.
Although any connection between Cook and Bedsole is unclear, it is clear that Bedsole has forfeited any claim to being the fiscally conservative candidate in his race.
