Ray Blanton

Leonard Ray Blanton (April 10, 1930 – November 22, 1996) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 44th governor of Tennessee from 1975 to 1979. He also served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1967 to 1973. Though he initiated a number of government reforms and was instrumental in bringing foreign investment to Tennessee, his term as governor was marred by scandal over the selling of pardons and liquor licenses. He taught school in Mooresville, Indiana, from 1951 to 1953, when he returned to Adamsville to work in the family construction business, B&B Construction. He went on to win the general election, and was twice reelected.

As a congressman, Blanton had relatively poor attendance, sponsored few bills of significance, and served on just two committees: the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, and the District of Columbia committee. He instead focused on his constituents, namely by trying to acquire funding for projects in Tennessee, including the state's first Head Start Program. Blanton criticized the anti-war movement,

Tennessee lost a congressional district after the 1970 census, and the legislature merged most of Blanton's territory with the neighboring 8th District of popular fellow Democrat, Ed Jones. The merged district retained Blanton's district number, but was geographically more Jones' district. Rather than run against Jones in 1972, Blanton decided to run for the U.S. Senate. He easily won the Democratic primary, and faced the Republican incumbent, Howard Baker, in the general election. Unlike Blanton, Baker had supported the Voting Rights Act and the lowering of the voting age, helping him make inroads among two key constituencies, black voters and young voters.

Scandals

Blanton's administration was frequently accused of extravagant spending. He accepted a controversial $20,000 pay raise, including 20 convicted murderers.

While Blanton stated the pardons were to comply with a court order to reduce the state's prison population, the FBI and members of both parties grew concerned that the pardons were related to the alleged scandal then under investigation.

Although never formally charged in the pardons matter, Blanton was eventually indicted on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy, and extortion for selling liquor licenses. He was convicted and sentenced to federal prison. Released on July 18, 1986, after serving 22 months, that decision was vacated by the court's decision to re-hear the case en banc. The full Sixth Circuit Court affirmed Blanton's convictions, and the Supreme Court denied review. In January 1988, 9 of the 11 charges were thrown out in a separate appeal.

Later life Blanton spent the last decade of his life trying unsuccessfully to clear his name. In 1988, he ran for the retiring Ed Jones' 8th district congressional seat. He finished far behind the eventual winner, John Tanner, winning just over 10% of the vote. He then became privately employed at a Ford dealership in Henderson.

Blanton died on November 22, 1996, at the Jackson-Madison County Hospital in Jackson while awaiting a liver transplant.

Marie

A portion of the story of the pardons scandal was made into a book, Marie: A True Story, by Peter Maas, author of Serpico, and eventually made into the motion picture Marie (1985), starring Sissy Spacek in the title role of Marie Ragghianti. Attorney and future U.S. Senator Fred Thompson, who had served as Ragghianti's lawyer, launched his acting career in this picture, portraying himself. The pardons scandal, as well as others, are also detailed in the book FBI Codename TENNPAR, written by Hank Hillin, the Nashville-based FBI agent who led the investigation into the Blanton administration.

Family

Blanton married Betty Littlefield in 1949. They had three children before they divorced in 1979. Blanton married Karen Flint in 1988, during his comeback bid for Congress.