The Judgment of the Rev. Crabb

State Rep. Joe Crabb, R-Atascocita, who as chair of the House Redistricting Committee has distinguished himself by equal parts ineffectiveness and irascibility, continues to demonstrate his limitations as a public servant. Last week he ejected veteran El Paso Times reporter Gary Scharrer from his Capitol office because Scharrer had the temerity to ask him some questions about a letter that former Redistricting Committee staffer Lauren Kasprzak wrote to the committee members after she left her session job as assistant clerk. Kasprzak had some kind words to say about both Republican and Democratic members, but after watching up close, she had little good to say about the process. "I was happy to see the number of people who came to speak out against the proposal of redistricting at a time where so many other concerns are facing our state," Kasprzak wrote on July 11, "but I do not think their voices had any impact on the minds of some on the panel. We were just going through the motions." In particular, wrote the clerk, concerning committee members who opposed congressional redistricting (like Crabb's own vice-chairman, Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio), "It was obvious that Chairman Crabb would stop at nothing to silence their voices."

Kasprzak also recalled overhearing a small-town mayor visiting Crabb's office casually indulge in racist remarks and then refer disparagingly to the League of Women Voters as "the plague of women voters." "As a woman who is obviously involved in politics," Kasprzak wrote, "I could not believe it when my boss and state representative agreed to a comment like that." And she described the field-hearing process as a "joke" because "the public was excluded in any real decision calculus of the committee," and the real map-drawing took place entirely behind closed doors.

Crabb is notoriously tone-deaf politically -- he told the committee that Valley field hearings would be pointless because "only two of the members speak Spanish" -- but he stooped to a new level when Scharrer, after confirming that Kasprzak is indeed a Crabb constituent and the daughter of Republicans who now considers herself an independent, visited his office to ask him about Kasprzak's letter. Crabb first showed Scharrer an earlier letter from the clerk thanking Crabb for her experience, but then he forbid the reporter to take notes, and told him to get out of his office, saying, "What you are doing is evil. Leave my office." (Crabb has a "Doctor of Ministry" degree from TCU, and lists his occupation as "Minister/Rancher/Attorney.")

Scharrer told Naked City that Crabb ushered him out to the hallway, then a moment later ran after him and accused him of stealing the first Kasprzak letter. Scharrer showed Crabb he didn't have it and offered to return to the office until Crabb found the letter. Crabb refused, said Scharrer, and told the reporter something to the effect that Scharrer would be sorry on "Judgment Day." "I was polite and professional until that moment," said the invariably soft-spoken Scharrer, "but I said to him, 'Joe, I only have one judge, and you're not him.'"