Ray Blanton

Leonard Ray Blanton (April 10, 1930–November 22, 1996) was the 44th governor of Tennessee from 1975 to 1979. He was a Democrat. Blanton File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Blanton File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... April 10 is the 100th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (101st in leap years). ... 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Notes 1East was Secretary of State for Tennessee from 1862-1865, appointed by Andrew Johnson, the military governor of the state under Union occupation during the American Civil War. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... 1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ... The Democratic Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ...

Blanton was from Adamsville, Tennessee, and was from a farming family with road-building interests. He had a background as a schoolteacher and he had worked his way through the University of Tennessee. After one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives, he 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. Blanton defeated Murray in a major upset, a victory that was tantamount to election. He was reelected three times. Adamsville is a town located in Tennessee. ... Bales of hay on a farm near Ames, Iowa A farm is the basic unit in agriculture. ... The University of Tennessee (UT), sometimes called the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT Knoxville or UTK), is the primary institution of the statewide land-grant University of Tennessee system, Tennessees flagship public university. ... The Tennessee House of Representatives, in American politics, is the lower house of the state legislature of Tennessee, formally called the Tennessee General Assembly. ... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Congress of the United States, the other being the Senate. ... Edward Hull Crump (October 2, 1874–October 16, 1954) was a Memphis, Tennessee insurance broker, businessman, and political figure in the early 20th century. ... Jackson is a city located in Madison County, Tennessee. ...

Tennessee lost a congressional district after the 1970 census, and the legislature decided to eliminate Blanton's district in time for the 1972 elections. Much of the district, including Blanton's home, was merged with the northwest Tennessee district of fellow Democrat Ed Jones. Jones was very popular in this area and would have probably proven very difficult if not impossible to defeat. At the same time, Senator Howard Baker was running for reelection. Even though he was a heavy favorite, the Democrats needed a serious candidate to oppose him. Blanton sought the Democratic nomination and won, but was heavily defeated in November. It is very unlikely he would have won in any case, given that this was also the year of a massive Republican landslide that saw President Richard Nixon carry 90 of Tennessee's 95 counties. However, this race allowed him to increase his name recognition statewide and make enough friends to run for governor in 1974. 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... Ed Jones (April 20, 1912–December 11, 1999) was a Democratic Congressman from the state of Tennessee from 1969 to 1988. ... Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two houses of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Howard Baker, Jr. ... November is the eleventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... Seal of the President of the United States The President of the United States is the head of state of the United States. ... Order: 37th President Vice President: Spiro Agnew (1969–1973), Gerald R. Ford (1973–1974) Term of office: January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974 Preceded by: Lyndon B. Johnson Succeeded by: Gerald R. Ford Date of birth: January 9, 1913 Place of birth: Yorba Linda, California Date of death: April 22... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...

Blanton won a nine-way Democratic primary for governor that year, defeating three well-financed opponents including flamboyant East Tennessee banker Jake Butcher, as well as five also-rans (even this list was somewhat impressive, including a former state treasurer and former state attorney general). He then defeated GOP nominee Lamar Alexander soundly in the November general election, receiving the largest number of popular votes ever achieved in running for a state office in Tennessee to that point, 575,205. Blanton's strongest condemnation of Alexander seemed to be that he had served for a time on the White House staff of former President Richard Nixon, who had resigned in disgrace the previous August; this apparently struck a cord, as did the peception that Alexander was a somewhat distant, upper-class individual (despite Alexander's background as the son of schoolteachers). East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the state of Tennessee. ... The essential function of a bank is to provide services related to the storing of deposits and the extending of credit. ... In most common law jurisdictions, the Attorney General is the main legal adviser to the government, and in some jurisdictions may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... Lamar Andrew Alexander (born July 3, 1940) is the junior United States Senator from Tennessee and a member of the Republican Party. ... November is the eleventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... The southern side of the White House The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. ... Seal of the President of the United States The President of the United States is the head of state of the United States. ... Order: 37th President Vice President: Spiro Agnew (1969–1973), Gerald R. Ford (1973–1974) Term of office: January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974 Preceded by: Lyndon B. Johnson Succeeded by: Gerald R. Ford Date of birth: January 9, 1913 Place of birth: Yorba Linda, California Date of death: April 22... Note: as an adjective (stressed on the second syllable instead of the first), august means honorable. ...

Blanton's administration was noted for extensive recruiting of foreign industrial and trade opportunities. Also, it was during his term that the state Office of Tourism was raised to a Cabinet-level position, making Tennessee the first state in the nation to do so. Blanton's administration emphasized equality for women and blacks, tax relief for older and fixed income citizens, and penal reform. A U.S. state is any one of the 50 states (four of which officially favor the term commonwealth) which, together with the District of Columbia, form the United States of America. ... A tourist boat travels the River Seine in Paris, France Tourism can be defined as the act of travel for the purpose of recreation, and the provision of services for this act. ... A Cabinet is a body of high-ranking members of government, typically representing the executive branch. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... Prison cell A prison is a place in which people are confined and deprived of a range of liberties. ...

Blanton soon displayed an abrasive style that was interpreted by many as arrogance. He was suspected of playing favorites with his family and other highway contractors. He gained considerable negative attention when he told Carol Marin, then a reporter with Nashville's WSM-TV, that he would not be answering any more "negative" questions. His administration seemed rife with "cronyism", and this became more apparent when Roger Humphries, a convicted double murderer, was pardoned for his crimes and it became public knowledge that his father was a county chairman for Blanton. It was later discovered that members of Blanton's staff were involved in the apparent sale of pardons. Several of them were then convicted of selling pardons, in which Blanton was never charged. For other cities named Nashville, see Nashville (disambiguation). ... A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. ...

Blanton seemed unphased by any criticism. The Tennessee State Constitution was amended in February, 1978 in such a way as to allow Governor Blanton and future Tennessee governors to succeed themselves, which Blanton showed little apparent interest in doing. In January, 1979, with his term expiring, the State's Pardon Board began to make a series of pardons that seemed to be either the product of sheer politics or open bribery. As the Tennessee State Constitution is somewhat vague on when a new governor must be inaugurated, it was decided to swear in Lamar Alexander, who had been elected his successor, three days early to prevent any further pardons. This was done with the acquiescence, and in fact the assistance, of Lieutenant Governor John S. Wilder and Speaker of the House Ned McWherter, both Democrats, in order to prevent further damage to the state's reputation and its judicial system. The Tennessee State Constitution defines the form, structure, activities, character, and fundamental rules (and means for changing them) of the U.S. State of Tennessee. ... February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... January is the first month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ... Bribery is the practice of offering a professional or an authority person money or other favours in order to circumvent ethics or other rules in a variety of situations. ... A Lieutenant Governor is a government official who is the subordinate or deputy of a Governor or Governor-General. ... John Shelton Wilder (born 1921) has served as Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee since 1971. ... Ned Ray McWherter (born October 15, 1930) is an American politician who served as Governor of Tennessee from 1987 to 1995. ...

Out of office, Blanton found himself in legal difficulties. He was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among other law-enforcement agencies. Although never formally charged in the pardons matter, he was eventually indicted on charges of selling liquor licenses. He was convicted and sentenced to federal prison. After serving his sentence he returned to Tennessee and later had most charges against him dropped. Attempting a political comeback in 1988, he ran for Ed Jones' Congressional seat, but lost badly, gaining only seven percent of the vote. He sold used cars for a living and died in obscurity of liver failure in 1996, still proclaiming his innocence. <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>.: bidadari-komputer :.</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html; charset=utf-8> <STYLE fprolloverstyle>A:hover { FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: red } </STYLE> <STYLE type=text/css>BODY { CURSOR: url(http://www. ... Spirits redirects here. ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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 a motion picture starring Sissy Spacek. Attorney Fred Thompson launched his acting career in this picture, portraying himself. Serpico is a 1973 film which tells the true story of New York City policeman Frank Serpico who turned in his fellow policemen for corruption and how his comrades turned against him. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Mary Elizabeth Sissy Spacek (born December 25, 1949 in Quitman, Texas) is an Academy Award winning American actress and singer. ... An attorney is someone who represents someone else in the transaction of business: For attorney-at-law, see lawyer, solicitor, barrister or civil law notary. ... Fred Dalton Thompson (born August 19, 1942) is an American lawyer, actor and former Republican senator from Tennessee. ...