Vincent Orange has been around D.C. politics for a long time — and there’s money he owes to prove it.

The former D.C. councilmember, one-time mayoral hopeful, and current Ward 5 candidate still owes tens of thousands of dollars to vendors and businesses for services they provided to his past campaigns, debts that under a new D.C. law would become a personal liability if incurred today.

The debts come from political campaigns stretching back to 2010, amounting to almost $108,000, according to campaign finance reports. Of that amount, $81,734 comes from his unsuccessful 2016 re-election bid for his at-large seat alone.

The debts include almost $8,000 to American Express; $4,800 to longtime D.C. Democratic Party attorney Don Dinan; $8,000 to Bob King, a longtime campaign consultant in Ward 5 who is best known for his outreach to seniors; $4,700 to Studio202DC, a graphic design firm; and others.

Over the years Orange has also loaned his own campaigns significant amounts of money: He loaned his failed 2006 mayoral campaign $97,500.

According to his campaign finance reports, the single biggest debt Orange’s campaign has is to Kennedy Communications, a D.C.-based political consultancy. Orange owes the firm $13,711 from an unsuccessful 2010 run for council chair and another $40,524 from his 2016 bid to keep his at-large seat on the council. (He lost to sitting Councilmember Robert White.)

“He basically promised that the money would be paid prior to us doing the last mailing [in the race], which was for $40,000,” said Andrew Kennedy, the firm’s founder. “But then he just stiffed us. He started avoiding our calls. I don’t have any love for the guy. I found it reprehensible.”

King was similarly stiffed to the tune of $8,000 when he helped organize bus trips to take seniors to the polls on Orange’s behalf in 2016. “He never paid it,” he said.

Orange did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Orange has repeatedly run for office in D.C. over the last three decades and served on the council during two stints — representing Ward 5 from 1998 to 2006, and as an at-large member from 2011 to 2016. The debts are included in the regular campaign finance reports that Orange, who often introduces himself as an attorney and certified public accountant, is still required to file for his almost half-dozen runs for office over the last 12 years.

Usually campaign finance accounts — which candidates use to raise and spend money for specific races — are closed out at the end of a campaign. Some of Orange’s accounts have stayed open, though, largely because of the unpaid debts he owes.

And this isn’t necessarily rare in politics. As of last October, for example, Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign was still reporting some $4.6 million in unpaid bills. In D.C., a few former elected officials and candidates other than Orange still have unpaid campaign debts: One-time at-large candidate Dionne Reeder’s 2018 campaign owes vendors almost $30,000; one of former council Chairman Kwame Brown’s campaigns still reports $35,000 in debts, and former Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander’s two campaigns owe more than $20,000.

Chuck Thies, who has run multiple D.C. campaigns over the years, says that Orange’s failure to pay vendors reflects poorly on him. “Decent people who run campaigns and decent candidates make sure everyone gets paid, period,” he said. “[Orange] gets to spend more money than he has because he screws people.” (Thies’ résumé includes running former Mayor Vincent Gray’s 2014 re-election bid, where he ran against Orange.)

That’s less likely to happen with Orange’s current run, though.

Since he ran for council in 2016, D.C. law has changed in a significant way. A sweeping rewrite of the city’s campaign finance laws in 2018 gives campaigns only 12 months after an election to settle any outstanding debts and close their accounts. After that, the debt becomes the candidate’s personal liability. (The law is not retroactive, so it doesn’t apply to Orange’s past campaigns.) Candidates can fundraise to pay off debts.

In his current run for the Ward 5 council seat, Orange is using the city’s public financing program, which gives candidates matching funds for small-dollar contributions from D.C. residents. (He similarly used it for an unsuccessful council bid in 2020.) According to a May 10 report, Orange has raised just over $23,000 from D.C. residents and received $117,000 in public funds. As of that report, he had just over $57,000 left in the bank. The Democratic primary is on June 21.

Earlier this year, Orange sued the Washington Business Journal and a former reporter for $25 million, claiming that an article about financial challenges during his leadership of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce was false and defamatory. The publication has asked a court to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that Orange hasn’t made the case that the reporting was false and that the lawsuit was filed as a “campaign tactic.”

King doesn’t hold a grudge over the unpaid debt; he says it’s “part of the game” of politics — especially when a candidate loses. But he says his experience with Orange made him change his own way of operating.

“It’s lost money. I wrote it off on my taxes,” he said. “I learned a lesson. It’s my fault because I should have gotten my money upfront. If they lose, you ain’t going to get it. Going forward with [Orange], everything would have to be paid before.”

Kennedy, who says he isn’t working on any particular D.C. campaigns currently, is less forgiving than King about the money Orange owes him.

“He could have set up a payment plan. It’s amazing to me that, even with the little guys, he’s leaving them in the dust.” he said. “I wouldn’t trust him with D.C. finances when he can’t even manage his own.”