Coup by Keel Hunt

The Tennessean

 

Tennessee has the dubious distinction of being the only state that has had a coup to replace a governor. It happened in 1979, just two days after then-Democratic Gov. Ray Blanton pardoned or commuted sentences for 52 convicted criminals.

The U.S. attorney general for Middle Tennessee — a Democrat — had information that more pardons were coming, and there were suspicions that the Blanton administration was selling clemencies.

So, the leaders of the state Senate and House — Democrats Ned McWherter and John Wilder — conspired with Republican Gov.-elect (and current U.S. Sen.) Lamar Alexander to swear Alexander in early to stop any more pardons.

Former Tennessean reporter Keel Hunt, a member of the incoming Alexander administration, has written a book that documents the historic event, one that includes biographies of each of the major players.

Hunt did more than 150 interviews for the book, “Coup: The Day the Democrats Ousted Their Governor, Put Republican Lamar Alexander in Office Early, and Stopped a Pardon Scandal” ($27.50, Vanderbilt University Press).

Still hard to believe all these years later that Democrats and Republicans got together to oust a governor. What an extraordinary event.

Extraordinary. Very much so. It had never happened before, anywhere in any state in the country. And it certainly has never happened anywhere since. It was also extraordinary given the fact that senior Democrats, as well as the Republican governor-elect, were able to work through this day, a very difficult day, successfully.

In turn, the story has great relevance to our country today when that kind of bipartisanship is so hard to find.

What made you want to do this so many years later?

It was a story that stuck in my head for many years. And I did think it was an important tale. I wrote the book for two reasons. One was, I knew it was a great story and it would be fun to tell it. I’m a writer and I enjoy writing, and it struck me as a good yarn. And it was an extraordinary case study about leaders in different parties working together to reach a solution.

Why three decades later?

I was very busy in my work. There was very little time to sit down and write anything of my own. One year would lead to another, and I never sat down to do it.

I had run into Hal Hardin (former U.S. attorney general who got the ball rolling on the coup) again, and that pulled it into the front of my mind. And I thought, I want to sit down and write this story.

Gov. Blanton eventually was convicted of a felony, but never of selling pardons. I wonder if the participants would’ve felt better had there been a conviction of selling pardons.

Oh, I think that would’ve changed it dramatically. You have strong opinions on both sides — how bad was this situation? There was ambiguity at the time: How much of the clemency-for-cash scandal was Gov. Blanton aware of? In truth, he was never convicted of that.

There was plenty else going on in that administration and he was convicted of another crime, but not this one.

But among these central participants … there was in a matter of hours, very quick agreement that this coup had to happen, that something had to be done. There was potentially a public safety emergency; there was fear that one of the prisoners about to be released in the second wave would be (convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin) James Earl Ray.

You’ve said several times that Hal Hardin is the hero of this story, and you’ve used the word “hero” in our conversations. Can you please explain?

Hal Hardin, like many of the participants, was a very senior Democrat in the Tennessee Democratic Party. He was a longtime political character, owed his appointment as a judge to Gov. Blanton. Hal Hardin was Gov. Blanton’s first judicial appointee in 1975 after he took office.

He (Hardin) was appointed U.S. attorney by President Carter. At the time, Hal Hardin was considered to be a potential candidate for governor himself. He had worked hard in the party.

So this was a very problematic situation for him, but he felt his first duty was to public safety and to the rule of law. So when he got this information on late Wednesday morning, Jan. 17, 1979, that there was another list coming, that clemencies were being prepared that morning for a list beyond the 52 that were released, he took a courageous step.

He made a phone call. He didn’t call his boss, the attorney general of the United States, Griffin Bell. He didn’t call anybody else at the Justice Department. He called Lamar Alexander, he called a Republican, because Alexander was the only available governor-elect who might be sworn in early and end this craziness.

In that call, he said, “I’m calling you as a Tennessean.” That was a courageous act.

You mentioned that Hal Hardin had a boss. Did he run it up the chain at all?

I asked him why he didn’t. And he said a couple reasons. “I’m one U.S. attorney out of 90-some. And I didn’t think they would get back to me quick enough because the clock was ticking.”

Number two, he felt that if they got back to him, they might say, “Leave it alone.”

So that’s what I mean. It was a very courageous act on his part that probably kept a lot of bad people in prison as a result.

What were the concerns around carrying out the coup?

On the afternoon of the decision, there was worry that what might happen could be not so peaceful. They were concerned partly because of Gov. Blanton’s personality, his behavior that he might do any number of things. The governor is in charge of the Highway Patrol, the National Guard. He could have encircled the Capitol and refused to let (Alexander’s) people in.

Part of the thought process was how to make this go properly. You didn’t want to have conflict about two people claiming to be governor.

July 28, 2013
The Tennessean
By Brad Schmitt

Click here for the original story on tennessean.com