What ever happened to Ray Blanton, Tennessee governor......?
Oh yeah, Thirty-one years ago this month, former Tennessee Gov. Leonard Ray Blanton was convicted of mail fraud, conspiracy and extortion for selling liquor licenses. He had been exposed as being part of a scheme that controlled or forced kickbacks from Nashville liquor store owners. His next 22 months would be spent in a federal penitentiary.
While most recalling Blanton today remember his alleged involvement in selling pardons, he was never implicated on charges of that nature — although some of his key advisors were convicted in that scheme. He is also remembered for unceremoniously being removed from office three days early in a move then-Lt. Gov. John Wilder famously called, “Impeachment, Tennessee style.”
Keel Hunt, founder and principal of The Strategy Group, will later this year publish a much-anticipated book about the day that had a seismic impact on Tennessee politics.
In 1978, Hunt left his job as city editor for The Tennessean to join the gubernatorial campaign of Lamar Alexander. After winning, Alexander appointed Hunt to the position of special assistant to the governor for research and planning.
For years, Hunt has looked back to the early departure of Blanton and the rise of Alexander and has been in awe of how decisions were made and party lines faded into a cooperative effort to stabilize Tennessee politics. Hunt eventually acted on his sense of history and has shared with the Post a few tidbits of what has happened to some key figures of that era.
Ray Blanton: After prison, Blanton was employed by a Ford dealership in Henderson, Tenn. He attempted a political comeback in 1988 by running for the U.S. Congressional seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Ed Jones. He garnered only 7 percent of the vote in the Democratic Primary. He died on Nov. 22, 1996, and is buried at Shiloh Church in Hardin County.
http://www.nashvillepost.com/h...ment-tennessee-style