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Was Carly Fiorina slow to pay staff on her Senate campaign?

CBS News asked Carly Fiorina about allegations that she took years to settle the debts from her 2010 U.S. Senate campaign in California
Was Carly Fiorina slow to pay staff on her Senate campaign? 00:31

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is rebutting a Washington Post story that details a pattern of delayed payments to staff and contractors after her 2010 Senate campaign in California.

According to the piece, Fiorina, the wealthy former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, waited until January, a few months before announcing her 2016 presidential bid, to settle most of the more than 30 invoices outstanding from her last campaign - a total of about $500,000. She was quicker to reimburse herself the $1.3 million she lent the campaign.

Fiorina, when asked about the article Monday, dismissed it. "You know I don't think the Washington Post has much credibility anymore," she told reporters.

Several contractors told the Post about their difficulty getting paid: Jon Seaton, the managing partner of East Meridian Strategies, was paid half of his $18,000 bill for making campaign mailers (he is now employed by another 2016 presidential candidate, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina). He said he still has not received the other half. Jan van Lohuizen, who did surveys for the campaign, wasn't paid the remaining $7,500 he was owed until this year. After her pollster, Joe Shumate, died a month before Election Day, his widow was also left waiting for the $30,000 he was owed.

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"Occasionally, I'd call and tell her she should pay them," Martin Wilson, Fiorina's former campaign manager, told the Post. "She just wouldn't."

Asked about that quote, Fiorina said, "I have no idea what you're talking about - I'm sorry."

Jon Cross, who was the operations director for her Senate campaign, defended her actions.

"People are just upset and angry and throwing her under the bus," he told the Post. "If we didn't win, why do you deserve to get paid? If you don't succeed in business, you shouldn't be the first one to step up and complain about getting paid."

Speaking to reporters Monday, Fiorina insisted, "All of our debt was paid off and everyone was paid," when asked whether she believes that staffers shouldn't be compensated if a campaign loses.

She isn't the first candidate to take a while to pay off her campaign debt: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't retire all of her 2008 debt until January 2013.

CBS News Digital Political Journalist Jacqueline Alemany contributed to this story.

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