Former staffers of Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz have made explosive claims that she was “manic” and “abusive” and that she threw furniture at her aides.
The irascible, Ukrainian-born Indiana lawmaker has been named the Capitol’s “worst boss” and her conduct is now at the center of an ethics complaint.
Your office has been a revolving door of staff who think they’re “tough” enough to handle it, only to head for the exits soon after.
A source said Spartz had “thrown shoes” at his district staff and “exploded” at them in front of constituents on multiple occasions.
Ethics staff have been in contact with former Spartz aides about the complaint, DailyMail.com confirmed, but it is unclear what stage their investigation is at. politics first reported the committee had conducted “preliminary investigations” into complaints about his behavior.
The committee would normally notify a member if they are under formal investigation, and Spartz says she has not been notified.
One former employee described his behavior to DailyMail.com as “manic” and “verbally abrasive, if not borderline abusive.”
Spartz’s office has the highest turnover of any House member, according to a count of Legistorm’s “worst bosses” that tracks turnover from 2001 to 2023.
Former staffers of Rep. Victoria Spartz are in contact with the House Ethics Committee over a complaint that she allegedly “abused” her staff.
Two former aides said Spartz was known to “throw furniture” at her staff and that she exploited them at public or private events. “It didn’t bother him that people were watching.”
Two former employees said they frequently received ‘one, two, three in the morning’ calls from Spartz, where she blamed them for decisions she had approved only hours earlier.
In the fall of 2021, Spartz and his then-chief of staff allegedly got into a shouting match that got so bad that the rest of the staff had to flee the facility, according to two sources with direct knowledge.
At one point, Spartz yelled at the boss that “she could do all the staff’s jobs better than them,” according to two witnesses, and the boss came out and ordered the rest of the staff to leave the office to “protect” them from the outburst. .
But Spartaz allegedly treated its lower-level staff worse.
“His interactions with senior staff were much more civil than with lower-level staff,” one source said.
Interns, volunteers and social workers were often victims of his profanity-laden tirades, according to the source. “They don’t make a lot of money, treating them like that was totally inappropriate and inappropriate.”
The irascible, Ukrainian-born Indiana Republican has been named the “worst boss” on Capitol Hill, and her office has been a revolving door of staff who think they’re “tough” enough to endure her reprimands, only to head for the exits. shortly after
Spartz’s office has the highest turnover of any House member, according to a Legistorm “worst bosses” count that tracks turnover from 2001 to 2023.
Two former employees confirmed to DailyMail.com that they were aware of a “preliminary investigation” by the Ethics Committee into the treatment of staff. Politico reported that it also involved the misuse of House resources for campaign purposes.
Spartz lost his chief of staff, Patrick Slowinski, and communications director, Michael Stevens, this week. Slowinski had only been in office for a few months.
The former aide said Spartz frequently left her children with district office staff, using them for “babysitting.”
A source with direct knowledge questioned why the committee had received the complaint against Spartz before her contentious primary, but decided to wait until after the primary to contact former staff about the complaint.
“If this is a nonpartisan investigation and justice is blind, then you don’t care who wins the primary, just do your job.”
Spartz campaign advisor Dan Hazelwood said Spartz has not been aware of any type of investigation by Ethics staff and stated that “there is no investigation.”
“The congresswoman has long criticized that many in Washington want power, pay and privileges and then turn around and do nothing,” he said. “When the system is held accountable, we receive anonymous rumors and exaggerated stories.”
The Ethics Committee declined to comment.
Spartz announced his retirement last year before quickly changing course and running for re-election. She won her contentious primary last month even though she was outpaid by her opponent Chuck Goodrich.
As the only Ukrainian-born member of Congress, Spartz saw a meteoric rise in her profile when war broke out between Russia and Ukraine.
He initially urged Congress to approve aid for his war-torn country, before rescinding support for future aid to Ukraine and even sponsoring an amendment that would have eliminated the $61 billion in economic aid for Ukraine that the House approved. in April. His amendment failed and he voted against the final relief package.
The congresswoman called former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy “weak” and said he showed a “lack of leadership in the spending debate that led to expanding funding levels for 2023, but ultimately did not vote.” in favor of his dismissal in October”.
In her opinion, she is a hard worker and needs a staff that can keep up with her.
Spartz was a key voice in pushing for a tax debt commission that now remains in limbo, and believes she is a “nuanced” thinker who cares deeply about addressing healthcare competition and price transparency, as well as issues foreign trade, regulatory cuts and competition from China. .