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Leonard Ray Blanton (April 10, 1930 – November 22, 1996) was an American politician who served as 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, namely over the selling of pardons and liquor licenses.〔 ==Early life and Congress== Blanton was born near Adamsville, Tennessee, the son of Leonard and Ova (Delaney) Blanton.〔 He was raised in an impoverished sharecropping family with road-building interests.〔 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.〔 Blanton graduated from Shiloh High School in 1948, and obtained a bachelor's degree in agriculture from the University of Tennessee in 1951. 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.〔 In 1964, Blanton was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, representing McNairy County.〔 He often sat in the back of the House chamber wearing sunglasses during House proceedings.〔 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.〔(Our Campaigns - TN District 7, Democratic primary ). ''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved: 1 January 2013.〕 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.〔 He spent a great deal of time at his district office responding to voter concerns, and frequently spoke to groups of students.〔(Finding Aid for Ray Blanton Congressional Papers ), Tennessee State Library and Archives, 2003. Retrieved: 1 January 2013.〕 Blanton criticized the Anti-war movement,〔 voted against extending the Voting Rights Act, and opposed lowering the voting age to 18.〔Phillip Langsdon, ''Tennessee: A Political History'' (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), pp. 375-387.〕 Tennessee lost a congressional district after the 1970 census, and the legislature merged Blanton's district with the neighboring 8th district of popular fellow Democrat, Ed Jones. 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 win two key constituencies, black voters and young voters.〔 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.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ray Blanton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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