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Aug. 7, 2006

Michael Decker: The Story of an Unhappy Camper

By Chris Heagarty

RALEIGH - As we watch the graceless fall of former state Representative Michael Decker, the public, and federal prosecutors, are sure to have a million questions.

However, there’s one question that’s just been nagging away at me, and I can’t hold it in any longer.

Michael Decker said in U.S. Federal Court last week that he was guilty of accepting $50,000 in 2003 to switch parties and preserve Democrat Jim Black as speaker of the N.C. House.

Have I just grown so hardened and cynical by daily updates from scandals in Washington, D.C. that this seems a little bit, well, cheap?

After the 2002 elections, the state House of Representatives stood composed of 61 Republicans and 59 Democrats. Decker’s party switch created a 60-60 deadlock that took days to break, and ultimately led to the co-speakership of the House between Jim Black and Richard Morgan.

“It changed the path of state history,” Republican state Representative Ed McMahan of Charlotte once told me. And considering that it was the bipartisan team of Co-Speakers Black and Morgan, and not the candidate chosen by the House Republican Caucus, who would guide the redistricting process and draw the new legislative districts for the coming decade, he’s probably right.

If you were the sort of person willing to sell your vote for such a historic decision, how much would you ask?

Consider that a fair number of Decker’s fellow legislators have to raise a quarter million or half a million dollars every two years just to keep their seats.

Consider that Jack Abramoff, his employers and associates made off with more than $85 million in money from client Native American tribes, and that over $4.4 million of that was directed to congressional politicians with connections to Native American interests.

Consider that in order to influence elections earlier this year, some 527 political groups, funded entirely by one or two corporate donors, willingly spent several times the amount Decker claims he sold out for.

In light of all of that, how desperate was Decker to take $50,000?

Most people assume state legislators get paid a lot of money -- they assume it’s a full-time job, like serving in Congress. In reality, most legislators work almost full-time hours, but earn part-time pay. Some news reports calculate Decker’s legislative pay and expense account money to have totaled about $20,000 annually.

Serving in the legislature requires a person to give up their job for several months out of the year. That may be why so many legislators are actually retirees, because no one working a nine-to-five job could ever get the time off needed for legislative service.

Legislators get money for their expenses, but it is not a direct reimbursement for what they spend, it’s a fixed per diem payment that hasn’t changed in years. Gas prices can triple, but the legislator who has to drive from the mountains or coast to Raleigh and back every week still gets reimbursed at the same rate back when gas was cheaper than a Starbucks coffee.

Decker reportedly had little income outside of this legislative salary. He may have done some substitute teaching over the twenty years that he served in Raleigh. News reports reveal no record of his wife working. He appears to have spent many nights sleeping in a camper while in Raleigh, unable to afford regular hotel rooms. At least until the $50,000 helped him upgrade to a Red Roof Inn.

Campaign reporting records suggest that Decker often opened up his campaign fund, the money given to him by voters and other politicians for his election, and used it for his own personal use. Thankfully, new state laws enacted this year will prevent that sort of thing from happening in the future.

Selling a vote is disgraceful. But in the world of campaigns and elections where hundreds of thousands of dollars routinely exchange hands, what does selling out for $50,000 tell us?

Along with indicting Michael Decker, should we perhaps indict the system that could possibly make $50,000 so tempting?

Chris Heagarty is the executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, a Raleigh-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving elections in North Carolina.