Leonard Ray Blanton was the 44th Governor of Tennessee from 1975 to 1979. Blanton's administration was rife with corruption.
Blanton was from Adamsville, Tennessee

Adamsville, Tennessee

Adamsville is a town in Hardin and McNairy counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The population was 2,207 at the 2010 census. Adamsville is named after George D. Adams, who operated an inn and stagecoach stop in the 1840s...

, and was from a farm

Farm

A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

ing family with road-building interests. He had a background as a schoolteacher and he had worked his way through the University of Tennessee

University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

. After one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives

Tennessee House of Representatives

The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional requirements:...

, he ran for Congress

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

, challenging 12-term incumbent and former Crump machine

E. H. Crump

Edward Hull "Boss" Crump was an American politician from Memphis, Tennessee. He was mayor from 1910 through 1915, and again briefly in 1940; in the intervening years he effectively appointed the mayors.-Career:...

 ally Tom J.