Rep-elect Spartz Says She Represents People, not Government or Party

Had she remained in the Indiana state senate instead of running for Congress this year, Victoria Spartz almost surely would have faced a primary.

As Spartz told Newsmax during the orientation for freshman Republicans in the House on Tuesday, “I don’t represent my party or the government — just the people.”

As things turned out, stalwart conservative Spartz chose to run for the seat of retiring Republican Rep. Susan Brooks in Indiana’s 5th District. She won a spirited three-way GOP primary and, in the fall, faced the better-funded campaign by liberal Democrat Christine Hale.

This was a race that Democrats targeted in a big way, firmly believing that the suburbs of Indianapolis that had elected centrist Republican Brooks would not accept a decidedly conservative Spartz.

But Democrats had not reckoned with Victoria Kulgeyko Spartz.

With an iconic accent from her native Ukraine and her Eastern European beauty, the 42-year-old mother of two cut a noticeable figure on the campaign trail.

More importantly, she made little secret of her conservative social stances or her devotion to the free market and capitalism as the primary solutions to economic woes.

Late in the race, Hale hit her hard with televised attack salvos. Spartz responded with an ad featuring her two teenaged daughters, with one decrying the “crazy lies” her opponent was telling and the other recalling how “Mom came to the United States with everything she owned in a suitcase.”

Then Spartz appeared in the spot, saying she approved it because “it’s the best endorsement a mother could have.” She won with 53% of the vote.

“My opponent tried to appear nice and rosey but she had voted against things like public safety and deregulation,” Spartz recalled. “She really was defined by [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and, when people realized that, they decided they preferred an independent thinker who wasn’t afraid to challenge her own leadership.”

Spartz’s signature independence was clearly evidenced in her approach to the issues she will deal with in Washington.

“We had a health care crisis and Obama delivered a bad solution,” she said of the Affordable Care Act. "But let’s be realistic. Let’s reform it and not repeal it, and make it more cost-efficient while protecting those with pre-existing conditions. If we don’t, we’ll wind up with a ‘Bidencare’ that’s a lot more expensive.”

The Hoosier lawmaker is anxious to serve on the House Financial Services Committee and, in her words, “work for better financial oversight over the entire executive branch [of government] and reform government spending completely.”

After earning a Master’s Degree at Purdue University (Ind.) and becoming a Certified Public Accountant, the young Spartz launched her own business and was soon dealing with major companies in New York.

“I’ve actually implemented [regulatory legislation at] Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank,” she told Newsmax. “I have a pretty good idea what needs to be done and not done with regulation and fiscal management.”

Spartz’s accent and background inevitably evokes questions about foreign policy. China is “a big problem” in her eyes, but she quickly added that “a lot of policies of ours have given incentives to companies to do business there. This has got to be changed and we’ve got to work with other countries to do it.”

On Russia, she is not sure Vladimir Putin is “someone we can do business with” because “he’s anti-American. Russia was democratic for a while, but it’s fallen back into dictatorship. We do need to do more to promote democratic movements in Eastern Europe and Russia.”

As close as the parties are divided in the House, Democrats maintain control and Pelosi will be wielding the gavel again come January. How does a freshman Republican deal with this, we asked.

“By developing good policies and offering them,” Spartz replied, “Then we see what happens.”

Newsmax Chief Political Columnist John Gizzi interviews Indiana GOP Rep.-elect Victoria Spartz. (Photo provided by John Gizzi)