The State Board of Elections played a key role in the downfall of former House Speaker Jim Black.

After the board got access to the Black campaign committee checks, the board exposed a scheme in which Black's fellow optometrists wrote campaign checks that left blank the date and who would receive them.

Black in turn would hand them to political allies, particularly Rep. Michael Decker, a Forsyth County Republican, who became a key figure in keeping Black in power.

The board turned up enough to convince Decker to plead guilty to accepting the campaign money as part of a $50,000 bribe. The hearings also put investigators onto the activities of a group of chiropractors.

Payments from three chiropractors to Black, which were made to ensure favorable legislation, led to a five-year federal prison term for Black.

Former Gov. Mike Easley's hearing is to be held in the same hotel where the board held Black's hearings.

Correction: A previous version of this post misstakenly said the board was acting on stories published in the N&O. Dome regrets the error. 

HAIL TO THE CUPCAKES: President Barack Obama held a town hall at a Raleigh high school to build support and rally swing votes on health care reform among the state's Congressional delegation. While in Raleigh, the leader of the free world gave a huge plug to a Raleigh cupcake shop and forgot the name of the House speaker.

THE DEAL'S A LOCK: Last week's budget meltdown left House and Senate Democrats bitterly divided. And that's how they stayed until Wednesday when the budget negotiators unveiled a plan that looked remarkably like the one that died the week before. By week's end they had a handshake agreement to raise sales taxes and income taxes on higher wage earners. A handful of Democrats, enough to scuttle the deal, were grumbling about the "sin" taxes and the word was Gov. Beverly Perdue still wasn't thrilled with the tax plan. What could go wrong?

BEAM HIM UP: Rep. Earl Jones, a Democrat from Ceti Alpha 5, er, Greensboro, was in the news this week. First he breathlessly announced in a news conference that his bill to legalize video poker has supporters. Then his bill to create a high-tech center called the "Star Fleet Academy" on N.C. A&T State University's campus was the subject of a parody video that included a picture of Perdue after a Borg assimilation. Jones is running on impulse power and his shields are at 25 percent. Scotty, you've got to give him more power!

IN OTHER NEWS: Former house member Michael Decker got his prison sentence reduced. U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre won't run for Senate. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr won't vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

A federal judge has reduced former state representative Michael Decker's prison sentence from 48 to 36 months, which could result in him being sent to a halfway house.

In an order signed Friday, U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever III cited Decker's help in the federal prosecution and conviction of Jim Black, the former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, the Winston-Salem Journal reports.

"Indeed, but for Decker's cooperation, Black might still be in office," Dever, wrote in the order.

Decker, of Walkertown, is now being held at a low-security prison near the South Carolina-Georgia border.

The reduced sentence means that he may be eligible to leave prison within the next month, said his attorney, David Freedman.

In Friday's order, Dever acknowledged Decker's cooperation but could not "ignore the serious nature of Decker's crime."

"I'm assuming the judge said, ‘Black's case is finally finished. Decker doesn't need to provide any more information,'" he said.

Decker admitted that in late 2002 and early 2003, he asked Black for $50,000 to support Black's bid to remain co-speaker of the house.

Eddie Speas once worked for disgraced Speaker Jim Black.

In 2006, the then-speaker was contesting the contention of an investigator for the State Board of Elections that Black broke campaign laws when he signed over blank checks to another legislator's campaign.

A quick refresher: Black was accused of redistributing campaign donations from optometrists by signing checks with a blank payee line. The checks went to Rep. Michael Decker, who had switched parties to help keep Black in power.

In March of 2006, Black's attorneys hired Speas as part of their argument that there was nothing wrong with the arrangement. Then working as a private attorney, Speas submitted an affidavit.

"Eddie Speas has gone through the law and has determined that none of those things were violations of the law," Black said in an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal.

Decker later pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge, admitting he left the Republican Party and supported Black for speaker in exchange for $50,000 and a legislative job for his son.

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue named Speas her general counsel Tuesday.

If the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District were a hunter, he'd have some nice trophies.

Over the past eight years, federal prosecutors based in Raleigh have taken down some big Democratic game as part of their anti-corruption efforts.

A short list:

Meg Scott Phipps. The former Agriculture commissioner spent three years in prison for fraud and extortion over inappropriate use of campaign funds.

Jim Black. The former longtime speaker of the N.C. House is serving time for taking $29,000 in bribes from chiropractors who wanted him to push legislation.

Michael Decker. The former state representative is serving time for taking more than $63,000 in cash and campaign checks from Black to switch parties.

Frank Ballance. The former Congressman is serving time for diverting $100,000 in public money he helped direct to a nonprofit to his law firm, church and family.

Garey Ballance. The son of Rep. Ballance, a Democratic district court judge, served time for failing to report money he received from his father to buy a Lincoln Navigator.

Kevin Geddings. The former state lottery commissioner is serving time for failing to disclose that he worked for a lottery vendor when he took his seat.

The U.S. attorney's office may have also helped investigate former Rep. Thomas Wright, who was found guilty in state courts of improperly spending campaign donations, though it has never confirmed or denied the assistance.

Not all of their targets were Democrats, either. Federal prosecutors also put former state GOP chairman and former U.S. attorney Sam Currin in prison for laundering money for a client.

Kieran Shanahan hopes the next U.S. attorneys keep the focus on corruption.

The Raleigh lawyer, who worked as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1984 to 1989, notes that federal prosecutors have played an important role in rooting out corruption in North Carolina.

Shanahan, a Republican, points to the successful prosecutions of former Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, former Speaker Jim Black and former Reps. Michael Decker and Thomas Wright, all Democrats.

"The one watchdog for the people of North Carolina has been prosecutors in the Eastern District," he said. "It would be a disappointment if they did not continue that effort."

Shanahan said that federal prosecutors are "uniquely equipped" to handle corruption investigations because they are politically insulated, have larger budgets and nationwide subpoena powers and can empanel investigative grand juries, a power that state and local prosecutors do not have.

He noted that U.S. attorneys often have different priorities in Republican and Democratic administrations, saying he expects the next prosecutors to focus more on cases involving white collar crime and environmental regulations.

"I think this administration might be more inclined to go after business," he said.

Jack Betts add his two cents on Thomas Wright's sentence.

In a post on This Old State, the Charlotte Observer editor writes that Wright got a longer sentence than other politicians because he did not apologize and because of where he was tried.

A key reason: Wright was charged, tried, convicted and sentenced in state court. Black and Decker were sentenced in federal courts. And while fairness would seem to require that those sentenced for corruption ought to get sentences that are proportionate not just to the crime but also to other sentences for political corruption, the plain fact is there’s little attention given to what fairness might dictate. Everything depends upon the prosecutor, the charges brought, the jury’s makeup and decision, and the judge who delivers a sentence. And judges themselves, of course, must abide by the dictates of the differing federal and state sentencing guidelines. Federal judges particularly have to go through a long process before pronouncing sentences, and their discretion is limited, though not as much as it used to be. State judges’ discretion is also controlled by mitigating and aggravating factors.  

Laura Leslie wonders why Thomas Wright got the longest sentence.

In a post on Hunter's Tavern, the WUNC reporter points out that the former state representative got the longest sentence of any of the three legislators who've been convicted of corruption in the last two years.

Former state Rep. Michael Decker got $50,000 and a job for his son for selling his vote, and in exchange he got 48 months in a federal prison.

Former House Speaker Jim Black got a $500,000 loan and admitted buying Decker's vote, and in exchange he got a $1 million fine and 63 months in a federal prison.

Wright got a $150,000 mortgage under false pretenses and pocketed $7,400 in charitable donations and he got 70 months in state prison.

"So how is it that fraud in the service of buying a house nets you more prison time than fraud in the service of buying the House?" she writes on the blog. "Seriously — is it really more heinous to deceive a banker than a voter?"

On the other hand, she notes that Wright failed to apologize at all for his behavior, unlike Black and Decker.

Even prison hasn't earned Rep. Michael Decker any sympathy.

In a column in the Greensboro News & Record, one of Decker's former Republican colleagues is quoted letting out a few more complaints about the former state representative, who is now in a federal prison for accepting a bribe from former Speaker Jim Black to switch parties.

Former county Republican chairman and state Rep. John Cocklereece recalls thinking "Friend, you don't have a chance," when Decker first ran in 1982 and 1984. He says Decker worked hard in the campaign, but he credits President Reagan for the wins.

In office, he says Decker was never popular with fellow Republicans because he "talked too much on the floor, often said the wrong things and was overly pious."

"It came to be a saying that "if you wanted to get a bill killed real fast ... get Decker to sponsor it,'' Cocklereece said.