Decker Case Is A Signal To Black

by Jack Betts - Arpil 29th, 2007 Charlotte.com

When [Judge Dever] laid down the law Friday and sentenced former state Rep. Michael Decker to four years in prison for instigating the worst corruption scandal in modern state history, his lecture on the devastating costs of dishonesty in public office and his sermon on the evils of greed for money and power were riveting.

Former House Speaker Jim Black wasn't in the courtroom, but Dever made it clear he believed Decker and Black conspired in a three-year scheme to defraud their legislative colleagues, hoodwink voters and betray a tradition of honest service when Black bribed Decker to switch parties and support him for speaker.

A couple of the issues that were decided by this legislative perversion?

1. We now have a lottery that we would not have had if Michael Decker and Jim Black had not colluded to cheat the voters.

2. The Legislative reapportionment that resulted from illegally throwing control of the legislature into democrat hands has resulted in redrawing disrtict lines in such a fashion as to give democrats a dozen more seats than the percentage of voters they win would justify. The current makeup of the legislature is thus a perversion of the voters intent.

How can anyone think that such injustice can stand and have anyone believe in representative democracy? If the legislature's votes can be bought and sold, even to the extent of gerrymandering districts to perpetuate an illegal farce keeping one party in power, then a citizen's vote is a meaningless joke.

A News & Observer editorial calls it . . .
A high price...

With Black able to buy Decker's vote, both Black and the Democratic Party salvaged a hold on power in the state House for an entire legislative session. That certainly influenced the fate of legislation, and since some of that legislation involved a redistricting scheme that put Republicans at a disadvantage, the influence of this corrupt bargain could prove to be long-lasting.

The price may be citizen respect for democracy itself.