Did former state Rep. Michael Decker cash a personal check from the state optometrists’ political action group before announcing his famous party switch?
Testimony just before the elections board’s lunch break suggests that scenario.
The testimony came from David Sasser, a Davidson County optometrist who says he does not know Decker. Sasser did know the leaders of the N.C. Optometric Society’s political action committee.
Decker — a longtime Forsyth County Republican representative to the state House — announced in the week before the 2003 legislative session that he planned to switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.
The switch led to a 60-60 deadlock for the two major parties in the House. That stalemate paved the way for the historic power-sharing agreement that allowed Democrat Jim Black and Republican Richard Morgan to share the speaker’s job in 2003 and 2004.
This morning’s testimony already has suggested that Decker benefitted financially from the party switch. Three optometrists have testified that they wrote series of blank checks in 2002 and handed those checks over to the N.C. Optometric Society’s political action committee.
Decker’s name ended up on some of those checks, while others were made out to his campaign committee, testimony showed. It’s hard to tell when the checks were written. At least one of the optometrists dated each of her checks September 14, 2002, before handing them over. The other optometrists testified they left the dates blank before turning the checks over.
Sasser outlined dates and names tied to a series of $75 checks he turned over to the optometrists’ group.
Sasser says two consecutive blank checks had the date February 19, 2003. They’re made payable to “Mike Decker for State House.” Jumping ahead three numbers in the sequence, a check was made out to the “Jim Black campaign” on October 24, 2002. Another check later in the series has the February 19 date and the name “Mike Decker for State House.”
But it’s another check in the series — 7547 — that breaks the mold. Sasser testified that the date on that check was November 19, 2002. It was made payable to “Mike Decker” — not Decker’s campaign committee.
If Sasser read the date correctly and testified truthfully, a check he turned over to the optometrists’ group in 2002 was cashed by someone named Mike Decker shortly after the November 2002 election.
At that time, Republicans outnumbered Democrats 61-59 in the House. That date falls nearly two months before Decker announced his party switch.
The elections board has taken a lunch break. The blog will resume this afternoon.
