This morning, we learned that Sandra Crenshaw is not eligible to run in House District 110, not because court documents say she is “mentally ill” but because she can’t do math. On her sworn application to run for the seat, she said that she had lived in the district for fewer than six months, the minimum requirement, at the time of the December filing. Dallas County Democratic chairwoman Darlene Ewing should have caught the problem. She didn’t. But Crenshaw says she has lived there long enough and simply “miscalculated.”
Yesterday, I emailed Tod Robberson, who wrote the DMN’s endorsement of Crenshaw, to ask him for clarification on his thinking. Robberson didn’t respond. No surprise. He and I stopped braiding each other’s hair and watching reality television together when I said he was horrible at his job and probably didn’t earn his Pulitzer. But Robberson did offer an explanation of sorts to Bethany. (Everyone remembers former FrontBurner contributor Bethany, right?) Here’s what Robberson told her. Bethany posted it to Facebook on Monday:
As the writer of the editorial in question, I’d like to assure you that we performed a full background check on Sandra Crenshaw and were well aware of her past. Our choices were between Ms. Crenshaw and Toni Rose, a candidate who had a record of non-performance in office, who would not answer our questionnaire, would not attend our interview and hung up the phone when we called her. We could not, in good faith, recommend Ms. Rose.
Our conclusion is that Ms. Crenshaw’s past is exactly that — the past. She has an ongoing level of community activism that is admittedly rowdy and rambunctious, but she is active. And her district needs someone with that level of engagement. That’s how we reached this decision.
It’s still not clear to me whether Robberson knew about the alleged “mental illness” issue when the wrote the endorsement. He certainly does now. And he also knows that Crenshaw either lied on her filing or can’t do math, and, in either case, is not eligible to run. The endorsement should be withdrawn, yes?
