Shelley Sekula-Gibbs

Shelley Ann Sekula-Gibbs (born June 22, 1953 ) is an American physician and politician, who serves as a director of The Woodlands, Texas Township board of directors.

Libertarian Ron Paul, 1988 Libertarian Party candidate for president, was a previous holder of the District 22 seat.

Sekula-Gibbs won election to the At Large, Position Three on Houston City Council in 2001 as Shelley Sekula-Rodriguez, from her marriage to the late TV newscaster Sylvan Rodriguez.

She previously served as a city councilwoman in Houston, Texas from 2002 to 2006.

Sekula-Gibbs was born to parents of Czech, German and Polish ancestry.

Sekula-Gibbs graduated from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas with summa cum laude honors and a degree in chemistry.

She later earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, and went on to residencies at the University of Florida in family practice, and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, specializing in dermatology.

Before entering politics, Sekula-Gibbs operated her own dermatology practice in the Clear Lake area of Houston.

Sekula-Gibbs teaches at Ben Taub Hospital and serves as a clinical assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, both in the Texas Medical Center.

Sekula-Gibbs serves on the Greater Houston Partnership as a member of the Health Care Advisory Committee and as a member of the Houston Galveston Area Council Emergency/Trauma Care Policy Council.

She is also a part of the Friends of the Texas Medical Center Library, where she serves on the board of directors.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who had represented Sekula-Gibbs's area of residence since it was redistricted into DeLay's district (see 2003 Texas redistricting) and was under indictment for conspiracy charges, decided to retire from Congress instead of face a tough re-election campaign in the following November.

After DeLay's announcement, Sekula-Gibbs expressed interest in the position, but waited for DeLay to complete the official withdrawal procedure before filing her papers.

The district as a whole, including the sections of Harris that it covers, voted for Bush in 2004 with 64% of the vote.

However, write-in candidates have historically failed to win in Texas, which made victory a challenge for Sekula-Gibbs.

The Dallas Morning News noted that on the electronic machines used in District 22, voters would have to spell out any write-in candidate's name by using a wheel to move a cursor through the alphabet.

The race was one of the most competitive races in the country according to the National Journal.

Two nonpartisan political reports, the Cook Political Report and Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, rated the race as Leans Democratic and CQPolitics.com rated the race Leans Democratic.

Smither, the Libertarian candidate, has stated that "a vote for liberal Democrat Nick Lampson will be a vote for Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House."

In 2005 she was re-elected by her present name.

Sekula-Gibbs is the first physician to have ever been elected to serve on Houston City Council.

As a member of Houston City Council, Sekula-Gibbs served on the Quality of Life, Budget and Fiscal Affairs, Pension Review, Council Governance, Environment and Public Health, Ethics, and International Liaison and Protocol committees.

She served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district in 2006.

Sekula-Gibbs resigned her seat on the Houston city council on November 8, 2006, following her victory in the special election to fill the two-month unexpired term of Tom DeLay.

On August 17, 2006, Sekula-Gibbs was selected as the endorsed Republican write-in candidate for District 22.

A write-in candidate was necessary because the Republicans were unsuccessful in their efforts to replace DeLay's name on the ballot with another Republican's name.

The courts ruled that replacing DeLay's name, especially after winning the state primary, violated Texas election laws.

After the court defeat, DeLay chose to remove his name voluntarily from the ballot, essentially leaving the ballot without a Republican standard bearer.

The precinct chairpersons voted to endorse one Republican for a write-in campaign.

Four Republicans in all — Sekula-Gibbs, Tom Campbell, Tim Turner and David Wallace, the mayor of the Houston suburb of Sugar Land — expressed interest in the Republican endorsement of a write-in campaign.

Two of Sekula-Gibbs' fellow Republican candidates, Campbell and Turner, decided to support Sekula-Gibbs in the general election immediately after her endorsement.

However, Wallace, who was the first to launch a write-in campaign for the seat, decided initially to continue his campaign without the backing of GOP leaders in the district, which would have made election to Congress difficult for Sekula-Gibbs.

In the end, Wallace dropped out of the race days after Sekula-Gibbs received the endorsement.

Sekula-Gibbs faced Democratic ex-congressman Nick Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither.

The district is heavily Republican in both the eastern portion of the district (where Sekula-Gibbs' base is located) and in the western portion (where Wallace comes from).

The main counties in the district, Fort Bend, Galveston and Brazoria voted 61% for Bush and 38.5% for Kerry and the remainder to a third-party candidate.

On October 30, 2006, a poll was released that was conducted by John Zogby and sponsored by the Houston Chronicle and KHOU, intended to gauge support for the various candidates in the district race.

A special election was held to fill her Council seat in May 2007; in runoff voting Democrat Melissa Noriega won the position.

A Republican, she won the special election to fill the seat for the last few weeks of the 109th United States Congress.

Sekula-Gibbs retired from practicing medicine in 2014, citing personal health issues.