Historic Tidbit: As he was carrying out his ill-fated pardons, Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton summoned Secretary of State Gentry Crowell to his office to witness his signature. In doing so, he noted that what he was doing “takes guts.” Crowell replied, “Yeah, well, some people have more guts than brains.”
My first volume of “Statesmen and Mischief Makers,” features many of the former, a handful of the latter, and a number of people that fall somewhere in between. Ray Blanton may be the most serious mischief maker in the book, and that’s not a compliment. The shenanigans he undertook jeopardized the safety and well-being of many of the citizens he took an oath to protect which as a result, led to an unprecedented bipartisan maneuver to remove him from office and install his successor days before his term as Governor was scheduled to end.
Blanton was not always in such bleak standing with voters of the “Volunteer State.” Growing up “dirt-poor,” on a Hardin County farm, he picked cotton as a boy and helped build roads. But he did find his way to the University of Tennessee and then started a construction business that would grow, prosper, and make him rich.
Blanton’s political career began in 1964 when he won a seat in the Tennessee Legislature. Two years later, he took a U.S. House seat that encompassed 23 west Tennessee counties and suburban Memphis in 1966 by stunning a fellow Democrat, Tom Murray, by 384 votes in the primary. He compiled a “Dixiecrat” record opposing attempts to extend the Voting Rights Act.
Unlike his days in the Tennessee Legislature where he would often sit in the back of the chamber listening to the various debates, Blanton’s attendance record in the U.S. House was spotty. When redistricting merged part of his turf with fellow Democrat Ed Jones in 1972, Blanton decided to challenge incumbent Republican Senator Howard Baker, campaigning, as the “Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture” says, a “George Wallace-like, pro-segregationist populist.” He took just 38% and lost all eight Congressional districts in the state.
Blanton after his 1974 election as Tennessee’s Governor (Crooks and Liars)
Blanton made a quick comeback, taking the Democratic nomination for Governor two years later, but his margin was uninspiring. In a field of 12, he won the nomination with just 23%, outdistancing his nearest rival, businessman Jake Butcher by just 3%. It resulted from a coalition of African-Americans and members of the business community. Blanton asked for a halt to the “rabble-rousers, both black and white, who seek to divide us.” At the same time however, he was putting a rider on an Appropriations bill that would prohibit busing.
Democrats were still fractious after the primary but to their benefit, Republicans were as well. Nashville Attorney Lamar Alexander, who hailed from the more moderate Baker wing of the GOP, had beaten a rival backed by the more conservative elements of the party, including the state’s other U.S. Senator, Bill Brock. Alexander made an appeal to black voters by reminding them of Blanton’s voting record. But Blanton promised to appoint them to his cabinet. And he scored a major coup by getting all 11 of the Democrats he had defeated in the primary to sign a letter endorsing his candidacy. Alexander meanwhile was hurt by his employment at the Nixon White House. The President had resigned that August.
With strong support from minorities and unions, Blanton defeated Alexander by a solid 56-44% and his capture of the office returned the Governorship to Democratic hands.
Blanton’s early tenure was not without accomplishments. He created the Department of Tourism and pursued investment for Tennessee in Europe, Africa, and Japan, often getting results. He pursued tax relief for seniors and worked on matters involving African-Americans and women. The restructuring of the retirement system was accomplished as well. Blanton was also the Governor when Elvis Presley died. He ordered state flags flown at half-staff and was one of few non-family or close friends to attend the funeral.
Having presented an award to June and Johnny Cash (ctpost)
Keel Hunt, author of a book profiling the Blanton scandal, notes the change in Blanton occurred “deeper into his term. His behavior turned erratic and his moods grew dark.” Blanton had always faced criticism for his extensive travel but he argued that he was doing it in the interest of Tennessee. But “he had been accused of selling used state vehicles to family and friends for a fraction of their value, rigging bids for road projects, putting his girlfriend on the payroll of a regional commission, and using the state’s Lear jet for travel instead of selling it as promised.” The vehicle scandal led to the indictment of Blanton’s Transportation Commissioner, though he was acquitted.
Blanton, once referred to as a “Hillbilly Nixon,” purchased some bulls while in office (University of Tennessee)
That was the tip of the iceberg. The real trouble started when Blanton fired Tennessee Board of Pardon and Paroles Chair Marie Ragghianti because, she alleged, she was about to expose several major blemishes on Blanton. Ragghianti hired Fred Thompson and won a $38,000 settlement. But the matter was just beginning.
Ragghianti had put officials onto the fact that Blanton was exchanging releases for cash and after a December 1978 raid of the state capitol, FBI agents asked a Blanton bodyguard the cost of pardoning Martin Luther King Jr assailant James Earl Ray. The agent didn’t think that would be possible but surmised it might not be inconceivable for him to escape. Subsequently, the bodyguard and Blanton’s legal counsel, Edward Fisk, were arrested and Blanton was called to testify. The Governor was cleared of any wrongdoing. But the saga continued.
Marie Ragghianti was represented by future Senator Fred Thompson following her termination. Her efforts became the subject of a movie, Marie (The Commercial Appeal)
Blanton had declined to seek re-election to a second term even though he was the first Tennessee Governor eligible to do so and was succeeded by Alexander, partly because Blanton’s unpopularity had tied down Jake Butcher who this time was successful in capturing the Democratic nomination.
By January 1979, Blanton was in the closing days of his term. But he apparently wanted to put to rest the notion that he was a lame-duck. “The Downfall Dictionary” notes that on January 15, Blanton pardoned “three prisoners and reduced the sentences of 49 others.” Among them: Roger Humphrey’s, who murdered his ex-wife and his lover. Blanton had flirted with pardoning him as early as 1976, but resisted due to public pressure. But he did not resist putting Humphrey’s son on the state payroll which hurt his image by itself.
It was at that time that Tennessee powers decided the little time Blanton had remaining in office was too much, as they worried that more clemencies could be in the works. That’s when Lieutenant Governor John Wilder and House Speaker Ned Ray McWherter were consulted and vowed they would not stand in the way of an early swearing-in for Alexander. Hunt notes a “dance” began taking place by people “who “were simply unaccustomed to working together, nor to speaking to each other at all.”
Alexander meanwhile, had been notified around noon on the 17th by U.S. Attorney Hal Hardin of what was going on, but was not certain of the wisdom of taking the oath early.
Few knew whether the Tennessee Constitution gave lawmakers the power to circumvent the planned inauguration date, and it was only during a meeting with Attorney General Bill Leech and his staff that they decided there were no specifications about when a new Governor could take his oath. They agreed that it could be done at any time and Alexander, who had eventually consented to an early inaugural, was notified at 4:00 PM that it would take place later that afternoon.
The oath was administered at 5:56 PM, three days ahead of schedule at which time Alexander read a statement. “The U.S. Attorney today advised each of us that he has substantial reason to believe that the Governor of Tennessee was planning to release one or more persons from prison who are targets of an investigation of payoffs for release from prison.” He said it was a “sad day” for the state and a “sad day for him.” Wilder later referred to it as “a ceremonial impeachment” and removal “Tennessee style.”
Blanton meanwhile, had learned of the maneuver just minutes before, but was powerless to stop it. In fact, he resisted. He tried to pardon 30 more prisoners but was ruled unable too. His rationale was that he was trying to “comply” with a state court order to relieve prison overcrowding and said he believed “history will record us as right.”
On his early removal, Blanton called himself “saddened and hurt for the people of the state of Tennessee that this clandestine action has taken place,” adding, “There is such a thing as courtesy. I thought they would have the courtesy to tell me.” Meanwhile, a Nashville radio station composed songs including, “Almost Commuted,” and “Pardon Me Ray.”
Blanton was never convicted in connection with prison gate. However, he was convicted of mail fraud, conspiracy, and extortion for selling state liquor licenses to a friend for $23,000, though nine of the 11 counts would eventually be thrown out.
In 1985, a movie “Marie,” was released that focused on the pardoning scandal and Ragghianti’s role in exposing it. Three years later, Blanton sought a comeback to the Congressional district Jones was giving up. It contained some territory that he had previously represented. But Democratic voters gave him just 7%. His death came in 1996 as he was on the wait-list for a liver
transplant.
To his dying day, Blanton proclaimed he “never took a dishonest dollar in my life. I was the only governor to ever leave office broke. That should tell you something.” Still, it flew in the face of an earlier creed, “Honesty does not always bring a response of love but it is absolutely essential to it.”