Welcome to Capitol Hill: Fifty Years of Scandal in Tennessee Politics

Although Tennessee has a rich history of political scandals, dating back to the founding of the state, the last fifty years have been a confusing, confounding, and sometimes ludicrous period of ne'er-do-welling. Welcome to Capitol Hill is a guide to the state's modern history of corruption. From Governor Ray Blanton's pardon scandals to the FBI investigation that started with now-Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally wearing a wire in the late 1980s to the sexual misconduct that plagues Tennessee politics, this book chronicles it all.

Veteran political reporters Joel Ebert and Erik Schelzig draw from interviews with primary and secondary sources, archival documents, and never-before-seen federal investigative files to provide readers with a handy resource to the wrongdoings of our elected officials.

Author: Joel Ebert, Erik Schelzig
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
Published: 08/15/2023
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.96lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.67d
ISBN: 9780826505859

About the Author
Joel Ebertis a former statehouse reporter for The Tennessean who previously covered courts and politics for the Charleston Daily Mail and Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia and general assignments for the Capital Journal in Pierre, South Dakota. Upon his arrival in Nashville in early 2016, Ebert jumped into the developing coverage of serial sexual harassment allegations against then-Rep. Jeremy Durham that ultimately resulted in his ouster from the House. Ebert also broke several developments in the scandal leading to Rep. Glen Casada becoming the first House speaker to fail to complete his full term in 126 years. Ebert launched the Tennessean'spolitical podcast Grand Divisions. Ebert earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ebert currently covers the Illinois General Assembly.

Erik Schelzigwas named the editor of The Tennessee Journal in 2018 after twelve years as a Tennessee statehouse correspondent for The Associated Press. He previously covered politics, business, and sports for the wire service in Florida and West Virginia. Schelzig began his career as a news clerk on the foreign desk of The Washington Post before joining the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Before joining the AP in Miami, Schelzig spent a year on a Robert Bosch fellowship in Germany covering the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks for the Washington Post and the news magazine Der Spiegel. Schelzig has a master's degree in political science from George Washington University.