Ray Blanton

Blanton was born near Adamsville, Tennessee, the son of Leonard and Ova (Delaney) Blanton.[1] He was raised in an impoverished sharecropping family with road-building interests.[5] While working with his family's road company, he occasionally got into fights at bars in Mississippi, and was once grazed in the neck by a stray bullet.[5] Blanton graduated from Shiloh High School in 1948, and obtained a bachelor's degree in agriculture from the University of Tennessee in 1951.[6] 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.[4]

In 1964, Blanton was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, representing McNairy County.[4] He often sat in the back of the House chamber wearing sunglasses during House proceedings.[1]

In 1966, Blanton ran for Congress, challenging 12-term incumbent and former Crump machine ally Tom J. Murray in the Democratic primary for the 7th congressional district, which was based in Jackson and included Adamsville. In a major upset, Blanton edged Murray for the nomination, winning by just 384 votes out of the nearly 70,000 votes cast.[7] 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.[8] He spent a great deal of time at his district office responding to voter concerns, and frequently spoke to groups of students.[8] Blanton criticized the anti-war movement,[8] voted against extending the Voting Rights Act, and opposed lowering the voting age to 18.[9]

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.[9] Baker also tied Blanton to the more liberal Democratic presidential candidate, George McGovern. On election day, Baker won in a landslide, 716,534 votes to 440,599.[9]

In 1974, Blanton won a twelve-person Democratic primary for governor. With just 23% of the vote,[1] he defeated several well-financed opponents, including flamboyant East Tennessee banker Jake Butcher, Nashville news anchor Hudley Crockett, and former Senator Ross Bass.[9] His opponent in the general election was Lamar Alexander, who had been a campaign manager for the incumbent, Winfield Dunn (the state constitution at the time prevented governors from serving two consecutive terms, so Dunn could not run). Though Dunn and Republicans had broken the Democrats' dominance of state politics in 1970, the Republican Party was tarnished by the Watergate scandal.[9] On election day, Blanton defeated Alexander, 576,833 votes to 455,467.[9]

Following his inauguration, Blanton called for a state income tax, but the state legislature, fearing a revolt from voters, refused to consider it, and instead raised the state sales tax.[9] Blanton overhauled the state's excise and franchise tax laws, and revised the state's Hall income tax to provide relief for the state's elderly residents.[9] He also elevated the state's Office of Tourism to a cabinet-level department, making Tennessee the first state in the nation to do so,[1] and upgraded the state's retirement system.[1]

Blanton's administration was noted for extensive recruiting of foreign industrial and trade opportunities. He made several trips to Africa, the Middle East, Japan, and Europe, in an effort to form economic partnerships with foreign investors. He was criticized for the costs of these trips, but was instrumental in bringing British, West German, and Japanese investment to the state.[1] In 1976, he hosted a meeting with several United Nations representatives in Nashville.[4]

In February 1978, the state constitution was amended to allow Blanton and future Tennessee governors to succeed themselves. Blanton did not run for reelection. His Republican opponent in 1974, Lamar Alexander, won in November.[10]

Blanton's administration was frequently accused of extravagant spending. He accepted a controversial $20,000 pay raise,[4] and often took friends on trips at state expense.[5] He and his aides charged $21,000 to state accounts for bar tabs, limousine rentals, and personal phone calls, though they eventually paid the money back.[5] Blanton was criticized for setting up a large network of county patronage officials, stating they were his political advisers.

His family's company was awarded a paving contract at a state park, even though Blanton had assured the company would not do business with the state during his governorship.[5]

In 1977, the "surplus car scandal" erupted when state officials were accused of selling surplus state-owned cars to political allies. Charles Bell, Commissioner of General Services, resigned, and Sonny McCarter, director of the state's Surplus Property Division, pleaded guilty to two counts of embezzlement. Transportation Commissioner Eddie Shaw was indicted for his role in the scandal, but was acquitted.[5]

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.[16] 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.[2] He is buried in the churchyard of Shiloh Church, within Shiloh National Military Park (not to be confused with the Shiloh National Cemetery, also located within the park). His grave is marked by a large obelisk.

In 2012, the website RealClearPolitics named Blanton one of the ten most corrupt politicians of all time.[17]

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.

Blanton married Betty Littlefield in 1949. They had three children before they divorced in 1979. He is descended from Lewis Wicker, the original owner of the historic cabin at Shiloh National Military Park.[3][18] Blanton married Karen Flint in 1988, during his comeback bid for Congress.[19]

• List of Governors of Tennessee

• United States Congress. "Ray Blanton (id: B000548)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Portrait painting of Governor Blanton – Tennessee Portrait Project
• Portrait photograph of Governor Blanton – Tennessee State Library and Archives