Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz is facing a House ethics investigation after staffers allege “abuse” by the Republican lawmaker.
Allegations surrounding Spartz have surfaced in a recent report by Politico, who say that multiple complaints have been filed about “general toxicity” and “rage,” according to a current aide and a former aide - who both have been contacted by investigators in recent weeks.
Staffers detailed how Spartz asked one to die for her or how she would constantly berate her staff calling them ‘r******’ and ‘children.’ She has hemorrhaged senior staff in recent weeks - though none said why they decided to leave.
The anonymous aides claim their complaints were filed with panel investigators before the Indiana representative won her primary race last month. In the Indiana congressional primary, Spartz beat eight rival Republicans to put her name on the ballot.
The Politico report claimed the House Ethics Committee has now made preliminary inquiries into Spartz’s treatment of staff.
However, her campaign adviser Dan Hazelwood said in a statement that she has not been contacted by Ethics Committee staff.
“The congresswoman has long been critical that too many in Washington want power, pay, and privilege then turn around and do nothing,” he said.
“When the system is held to account, we get anonymous rumors and exaggerated stories. She did not ask anyone to die. She does not ask for personal chores or staff to cook her dinners. She does insist that people be held accountable for delivering policy results to the American people,” he added.
Two sources claim that Spartz has imposed pay cuts in the last few weeks, reaching into the ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ for some staff, the outlet reported.
Hazelwood told The Washington Examiner that “staff responsibilities did change. So people who held dual jobs which had their pay increased because of workload shifted back to single jobs and lower pay, but still higher than they were previously.”
The aides also claimed the Ethics inquiry would cover the alleged use of taxpayer-funded House resources for campaign work during legislative working hours, with Spartz allegedly calling up workers about campaign issues on their official phones.
“The common thing is for her to call someone up or to their face, cuss them up, say the F-word about a million times, call them effing r******, effing children, effing whatever,” the current staffer alleged to Politico. “That’s a weekly thing. It’s not rare. All my interactions with her have been filled with complete and total rage.”
The former staffer also claimed that Spartz had said in a phone call in March: “I would rather die than not complete a task. Can you give me that same level of commitment?”
Hazelwood said in part in the statement, “She did not ask anyone to die. She does not ask for personal chores or staff to cook her dinners.”
On Tuesday, Spartz’s communications director reportedly resigned. Her chief of staff, Patrick Slowinski, also resigned after holding the position for less than a month, according to a person familiar with the matter telling the outlet.
In response, Hazelwood added to the outlet that “ We are sorry to see Patrick depart.”
“The congresswoman announced she was running again and just came through a difficult primary so the office is being reorganized and several positions are being modified,” he said.
When asked by The Washington Examiner about the reports of how she treats employees, Hazelwood said:
“Congresswoman Spartz first and foremost wants an office that gets things done for the people of the 5th District. Frankly, that is more important than hill staff. She continues to have long-serving constituent caseworkers who have been consistently outstanding. The congresswoman will continue to shift staff as necessary to get results,” he said.
“At the end of the day, it’s the people who matter, not the staff. While there are hard feelings, there are also many loyal staff, current and past,” he added.
The Independent has contacted Victoria Spartz’s press office and the House Ethics Committee for comment.
