A force in Austin political campaigns
Leader recalled as one of city’s most influential political consultants.
Pat Crow, one of Austin’s most influential political consultants, died peacefully in her sleep Monday at age 74.
Among the politically savvy in Austin, Crow was known as a powerhouse organizer for progressive Democratic candidates.
The effects of her work are visible and abundant to this day: She won 27 out of the 31 political campaigns she ran from 1998 to 2008, according to family and former co-workers.
Most notable among her winning campaigns: former Mayor and City Council Member Will Wynn, former City Council Members Brigid Shea and Gus Garcia (who later became mayor) and more than a half-dozen district judges.
She also had a role in pulling in votes for monumental local ballot initiatives, including the Save Our Springs Ordinance in 1992, the creation of the Travis County health care district in 2004 and the city’s smoking ban in 2005.
“Since the ’70s, I would say that was the best record that anyone has ever had” in Travis County, said David Butts, another longtime political consultant who worked alongside Crow for more than 25 years.
Crow was drawn into political campaigning in 1982 when her next-door neighbor was killed by a former fiancé after a justice of the peace had delayed in giving the neighbor a twice-requested protective order, said Barbara Rush, Crow’s sister and chief of staff for Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea.
The incident moved Crow to run Debra Ravel’s campaign against that justice of the peace, the first of many successful campaigns to come.
“It was the first step in a new era for both herself and the Austin political structure,” Rush said. “It wasn’t an easy life, but it was one that she had a deep passion for.”
After that victory, Crow left her position as a junior financial analyst at IBM to focus on politics and women’s policy issues, and she later was a founding member and president of the Austin Women’s Political Caucus chapter, Rush said.
Though she stood at not much more than 5 feet tall, Crow had a commanding personality and was known for being outspoken as she stood up for the causes she believed in, as well as for her candidates, all of whom went through thorough vetting before she decided to take them on.
Crow wasn’t afraid to crack the whip, and many of the candidates she worked for recalled at