A Morehead City optometrist spent about a half hour this afternoon outlining the process he and his colleagues used to fund political campaigns.
Joel Banks served on the board of the N.C. Optometrist Society’s political action committee. He testified that he solicited other optometrists to contribute money for political campaigns.
Those optometrists often made contributions in the form of blank checks with dollar figures and signatures, but no dates or names for the “payee.”
Banks says it was the method that had been used for years to fund candidates friendly to optometrists.
Board chairman Larry Leake questioned whether any person ever told Banks that former Rep. Michael Decker was a “friend of optometry.” Banks said he could not remember any person making that claim.
A number of checks from optometrists ended up funding Decker’s political campaign in 2003. Some of those checks were written to “Mike Decker” — outside the context of his campaign committee.
