Shelley Sekula-Gibbs talks about rough first week in Washington

(11/17/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- She's already served one-seventh of her congressional term. Now, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is touting what she's accomplished on Capitol Hill. And she tells us why most of her staff walked out on her.

Gibbs won an election ten days ago to serve the rest of Tom DeLay's term. But earlier this week, most of her staff quit, saying she was a mean boss. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs has had quite a week.

"I knew I would have to get to work and work fast," she said.

And she did, already voting on the floor and pushing for money for Ellington Field and NASA. She also called for a congressional investigation into eight staff members who quit abruptly on Tuesday.

"There are a lot of reasons that employees from an old administration may have disgruntled feelings going forward," she said.

She said that staff, who previously worked for Tom DeLay, illegally erased important files after they left. They deny it and the former chief of staff emailed us a response, reading in part, "Never has any Member of Congress treated us with as much disrespect and unprofessionalism as we witnessed during those five days."

It goes on to say, "The congresswoman is exactly right when she says, 'The voters of the 22nd Congressional District have a right to expect the employees of this office to serve their needs in a professional manner,' and that includes herself."

"I think it creates a great deal of noise in the system," said Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace.

Mayor Wallace is a possible primary opponent of Sekula-Gibbs two years from now. He's a fellow Republican who's surprised at the events of this past week.

"I think when you have something like this, it's a great deal of distraction and what we're seeing is a lot of interviews on TV and things of that nature, which is taking away from the process of governing," said Wallace.

And for Sekula-Gibbs, it's just one week down, seven to go.

"I'm a very small part of a very big team," she said. "I don't want to overstate that."

Sekula-Gibbs has until the end of the year as the representative of the 22nd district, then Nick Lampson takes over for two years.

Lampson's term will start after the term vacated by tom DeLay, who served in the 22nd district since the mid-80s. He left Congress earlier this year and is still under a conspiracy indictment, accused of funneling illegal corporate funds to Texas candidates in 2002. That's back when DeLay was majority leader of the House of Representatives.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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