Richard Morgan, historic NC House co-speaker, dead at 66

Former state Rep. Richard T. Morgan of Moore County, who was the Republican co-speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives in a historic period when the chamber was divided 60-60 between Democrats and Republicans, died on Wednesday. He was 66.

Mr. Morgan served 16 years in the legislature and often was a polarizing figure with loyal friends and bitter enemies. In the 2003-2004 state legislative session, he was the leader of five rebel Republicans who made a deal with the Democrats to share power in the state House.

Mr. Morgan’s deal circumvented the Republicans’ plans to choose another Republican lawmaker to be the House speaker, which is one of the three most powerful elected officials in state government.

“He was a maverick,” said Republican former state Rep. Danny McComas of Wilmington. McComas was one of the five rebels and he nominated Morgan for the speakership. “He was not the normal type of guy that’s ‘go out and do what everybody else was doing.’ He would just do what his heart told him to do.

“He stood by his convictions, put it that way. And he never wavered from them.”

The Republican Party was so angry with Mr. Morgan that in 2004 it kicked him out of its Executive Committee and its Central Committee, two powerful leadership groups within the party.

Mr. Morgan was unrepentant.

“The folks behind these resolutions just do not have the standing to challenge my Republican credentials,” Mr. Morgan said after the ouster in May 2004. “They have not made as much of a contribution to the party as I have over the past 30 years.”

Early in politics

Richard Timothy Morgan was born in Southern Pines in 1952 and raised in Moore County. He got into politics young — in his early 20s, he worked for Republican Gov. Jim Holshouser, and in 1976, at age 24, he made his first run for the General Assembly. His attempt to beat 12-term incumbent T. Clyde Auman failed.

Mr. Morgan lost another run in 1980 and lost a campaign for state insurance commissioner in 1984.

In the meantime, he married his wife, Cindy Morgan, sold insurance and operated a cattle farm.

Moore County voters sent Mr. Morgan to the legislature in the 1990 election. And when the Republicans took majority control of the state House following the 1994 election, Republican House Speaker Harold Brubaker appointed him to be the chairman of the Rules Committee.

It is one of the most powerful positions in the state House. The Rules chairman can stop or advance any bill, and often has to serve as an enforcer.

Democrats complained in early 1995 that Mr. Morgan was given too much power. One complained he would be a “rules czar.”

Former state Republican Rep. Mia Harrison Sarraille, who back then was Rep. Mia Morris of Fayetteville, said Mr. Morgan helped her.

“When he was Rules chairman, he had my back,” Ms. Sarraille said. “He helped me push through stuff. He was on my side. I don’t know why, but he took good care of me.”

She thinks it’s because she brought him good legislation and didn’t pester him unless she had something important.

But later, Ms. Sarraille said, the two had a falling out. This was after the Democrats had retaken majority control of the House. Mr. Morgan was the Republican caucus leader, Ms. Sarraille said, and she and several other Republicans tried to unseat him.

They felt Mr. Morgan was too “strong-arming” in how he ran things, Ms. Sarraille said.

The effort to unseat Mr. Morgan failed, Ms. Sarraille said. Mr. Morgan eventually found a way to retaliate, she said.

Shared power

In the 2002 election, the Republicans won 61 of the 120 seats in the state House.

The Republicans were preparing to elect Rep. Leo Daughtry of Johnston County to be their speaker, but Mr. Morgan in November 2002 announced plans to run as the bipartisan candidate.

He said Mr. Daughtry could not build consensus and unity among Republicans, and he felt a calling to keep Mr. Daughtry “as far away from the speaker's chair as possible.”

Then in January 2003, shortly before the lawmaking session was to begin, Republican Rep. Michael Decker of Forsyth County suddenly switched parties and became a Democrat and supported Democrat Jim Black for the speakership. (It was learned later that Mr. Decker was paid $50,000 to change parties and support Mr. Black. Mr. Black and Mr. Decker years later were sent to federal prison on corruption charges.)

When the legislators convened in late January 2003, the parties were divided 60-60 in the House. To become House speaker, a candidate had to have at least 61 votes.

Mr. Daughtry had stepped aside prior to the session and Republican Rep. George Holmes from Yadkin County was picked to replace him as the official Republican candidate.

But when when the votes were cast, the 60 Democrats for voted for Mr. Black, 55 Republicans voted for Mr. Holmes, and five Republicans voted for Mr. Morgan.

The balloting carried on repeatedly with the same results for days.

Finally, a compromise was reached — Mr. Morgan cut a deal to serve as co-speaker with Mr. Black. They alternated days presiding over House. It was the first time in history that Republicans and Democrats had such shared power in the legislature.

Perhaps the only time comparable was in the 1890s, when North Carolina had three political parties, none with a majority. In that period, the Republicans united with the Populist Party against the Democrats.

Some Republicans complained that Mr. Morgan was the weaker half of the co-speakership, and that he punished Republicans who he saw as enemies insufficiently supportive of him.

Eight Republican lawmakers saw their legislative assistants taken away from them. Without a staff, it became harder for them to do their jobs as legislators. These included Rep. Patrick McHenry, who now serves in Congress.

Ms. Sarraille, who was among the lawmakers who tried to push Mr. Morgan out of his caucus leader position several years prior, said she encountered his wrath after he became co-speaker. He was able to hurt her even though she was no longer in office.

In January 2003, Ms. Sarraille joined a prominent lobbying firm in Raleigh. But after Mr. Morgan became co-speaker, her boss was told to “forget anything you want to do” so long as Ms. Sarraille worked there, she said Thursday. The lobbying firm would have a much harder time advocating for its clients.

Ms. Sarraille resigned, she said.

Mr. McComas, one of the Republican lawmakers who backed Mr. Morgan for speaker, said Mr. Morgan was effective during his tenure.

“Anybody you will talk to will say that when he was speaker with Jim Black, that was the most productive session we ever had,” Mr. McComas said. “Things got done. We had some tax cuts as I recall.”

Democrats and Republicans worked together, he said.

Post-speakership

The Democrats regained the majority of the House seats in the 2004 elections, ending Mr. Morgan’s time as co-speaker. Then he lost the 2006 Republican primary.

In 2008, he had an unsuccessful run for state schools superintendent. In 2008, he lost the Republican primary for state Senate against incumbent Harris Blake. He had an unsuccessful run for commissioner of insurance in 2012.

In his latter years, Mr. Morgan, who had been obese, dieted and lost so much weight that people who knew him for years may not have recognized him.

Ms. Sarraille said he had called people to apologize for things that he had done to them (although she did not get such a call).

One person he did call was Carter Wrenn, a top Republican political consultant and former advisor to Republican U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. Mr. Wrenn and Mr. Morgan had been friends for 16 years, they said in 2008. But they split in the 1990s when Wrenn worked for one of Mr. Morgan’s rivals.

Mr. Morgan called Mr. Wrenn in 2006 to mend fences.

“I thought a dozen times, ‘I wish I was the one who made that call,’ ” Wrenn said in 2008.

Mr. Morgan’s obituary was incomplete as of Thursday evening.

The details published by Kennedy Funeral Home of Robbins says he died at Duke University Medical Center. The cause of death was not listed.

The family is to receive friends from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at at Kennedy Funeral Home. The funeral is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Faith Baptist Church in West End.

Staff writer Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3512.