Pancake-house deal is a capital mystery

RALEIGH -- Plenty of clues point to state House Speaker Jim Black as the pancake-house mystery man who gave former Republican Rep. Michael Decker a major infusion of cash in exchange for helping Democrats stay in power.

Decker's plea agreement Tuesday on a corruption charge answered some questions about why a Jesse Helms-style conservative would enrage fellow Republicans to help Democrats retain control of the state House in 2003. But it also raised one: Who was the unidentified House Democrat who prosecutors said gave Decker $50,000 for his switch?

The plea agreement and the unanswered question sent political tremors through Raleigh. Republicans began considering how to use the corruption issue in the November elections, and Democrats wondered whether the months of investigations, hearings and indictments involving political fundraising practices would ever end.

A somber Decker declined to talk to reporters as he left the federal courthouse in Raleigh. Black denied he had offered anything in exchange for Decker's vote.

But Decker's lawyer, David Freedman of Winston-Salem, said the $50,000 deal was made at a Salisbury IHOP, a location midway between their districts. And, while not confirming that Black was the mystery man, he noted a Winston-Salem Journal report in March that Black and Decker made the deal for Decker's vote at the restaurant just off Interstate 85.

Other evidence points to Black as well.

Tuesday's plea agreement said that Decker's campaign received four checks totaling $2,500 on the day he switched, and the checks were sent from Raleigh through a delivery service.

On that day, Black received via Federal Express four campaign checks totaling $2,500 made out to Decker, according to evidence from an earlier State Board of Elections hearing. Lobbyist Alexander "Sandy" Sands, who works in the Raleigh office of the Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice law firm, sent the checks from lawyers in the firm, and Sands testified that Black asked him to raise the money.

GOP sees an issue

If Black is indeed the mystery man, he could be the target of federal prosecutors. The speakership is one of the most powerful positions in state government; the speaker oversees the flow of legislation, the appointment of committees and even the assignment of offices and parking spaces. Black has tied the record as the longest-serving speaker.

Decker has agreed to testify in federal court about what he knows about the deal and about the unidentified Democrat, Freedman said.

North Carolina Republicans want to win back the House in November by portraying the Democrats as scandal-ridden, and thoughts of the influential four-term speaker in legal trouble have raised their hopes. The Democrats hold a 63-57 margin.

"I'm in a situation where we have seen one shoe drop, and shortly we will see some other shoes drop," said Ferrell Blount, the state GOP chairman from Pitt County.

Republicans already have been making political capital out of investigations surrounding Black's aggressive political fundraising from optometrists, video poker operators and others.

Black was even an important issue in the May Republican primaries, helping defeat GOP Rep. Richard Morgan of Moore County, who was criticized by some Republicans for agreeing to be co-speaker with Black in 2003.

Art Pope, a Republican businessman from Raleigh, said the Decker plea would have ripple effects as voters ask Democrats why they rallied behind Black this year. A political committee that Pope financed paid for primary election mailings connecting some Republicans to Black.