Mr. Crabb, Republican of Atascocita, who has a medium-sized district about three hours from Austin, spent $48,405 — including $12,000 on mileage at a 50-cents-a-mile rate. He did not return phone calls for comment.After reviewing his reimbursement requests to the Texas Comptroller, I wouldn't return phone calls either. According to public records (you can view them here) Crabb has been paid $480,000 over a 10 year period. This includes $127,000 in mileage which would equate to nearly 300,000 miles. A total of over $36,000 from 2003 to 2010 was also reimbursed to Crabb from his campaign account for mileage.
30,000 miles per year is about 150 round trips from the district to Austin every two years. Considering the Legislature only meets 6 months every two years requiring at most 24 round trips, 150 trips seems to be excessive.
This is an incredible amount of money over a 10 year period. The $127,000 in mileage alone makes it hard to believe this is a legitimate expense, but unless the District Attorney's Office is willing to investigate, nothing will ever be done about this. The Texas Ethics Commission has proven to be nothing more than a corruption protecting agency. The most they would do is slap Crabb with a fine and issue a finding that would give the DA an excuse not to investigate.
According to the AP, the DA is expanding their investigation into double dipping. Maybe this will include going Crabbing.
