Ethics stories are easy to overstate. An allegation is not a finding, an investigation is not a conviction and a dismissal does not always mean exoneration. Tennessee’s governor race provides examples of why those distinctions matter.
Nashville, Tenn – Marsha Blackburn, Jerri Green and Lauren Pinkston entered Tennessee’s general election with very different public records. Blackburn has spent decades in elected office, Green has held local office and worked in county government, and Pinkston is a first-time candidate. That difference inevitably produces an asymmetry in the amount of scrutiny available to reporters and voters.
That asymmetry should not be corrected by inventing scandals for candidates who do not have them.
It should be explained.
And the Blackburn record currently contains questions that require careful language.
A Senate ethics investigation happened
NewsChannel 5 reported in July that the Senate Select Committee on Ethics investigated Blackburn’s office in 2025 over allegations that taxpayer-funded Senate staff and resources were being used for political campaign activity. Blackburn’s office confirmed that the committee had reviewed the matter.
The underlying rule is not ambiguous. Senate ethics guidance says members and employees may not use official resources for campaign activity.
But that rule does not establish that Blackburn violated it.
NewsChannel 5 reported that investigators interviewed staff members and examined travel involving Blackburn employees who appeared at Republican Party meetings on days when taxpayers also covered staff travel expenses. The outlet also obtained recordings in which Senate staffers discussed concerns about being pressured to perform campaign-related work.
Those recordings are evidence that employees were concerned.
They are not, by themselves, a Senate Ethics Committee finding that Blackburn committed misconduct.
Blackburn has said the investigation was politically motivated, that there was “no misconduct,” that no disciplinary action was imposed and that the matter was resolved. Her office has not released its correspondence with the Ethics Committee. NewsChannel 5, citing a person briefed on the inquiry, separately reported that the committee planned to request a corrective-action plan from Blackburn’s office. Because the committee’s underlying correspondence remains confidential, voters currently cannot independently reconcile those descriptions.
That makes the most accurate conclusion narrower than either campaign side might prefer:
There was an ethics investigation. Blackburn says it cleared her of misconduct. The complete findings are not public.
A campaign-finance complaint was dismissed — but not on the merits
Blackburn faced another complaint this year involving allegations that money from her federal Senate campaign was improperly used to support her gubernatorial ambitions.
Knoxville Republican activist Gary Loe filed the sworn complaint with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance. Blackburn’s campaign called the allegations frivolous and wrong.
On March 31, the Registry voted unanimously to take no action because it lacked jurisdiction over the federal campaign account. The official meeting minutes say exactly that: the complaint was disposed of “for lack of jurisdiction.”
That is important.
The state did not find that Blackburn violated campaign-finance law.
It also did not investigate the allegations and determine that they were false.
It said the question belonged to federal regulators.
As of an Aug. 3 Tennessee Lookout review, no complaint had been filed with the Federal Election Commission over the matter.
Calling the state decision an ethics violation would therefore be wrong.
Calling it a full exoneration would also overstate what happened.
Green has been audited — with no findings
Green provides a useful contrast.
Her unsuccessful 2020 campaign for the Tennessee House triggered a state campaign-finance audit because unitemized contributions exceeded statutory thresholds. That audit was required by law based on the amount and percentage of those contributions; being audited was not itself evidence of wrongdoing.
The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance completed the audit this year.
Its conclusion was straightforward: no findings.
Auditors reported no areas of possible noncompliance in Green’s reporting and no violations involving Tennessee campaign-contribution limits.
That is what a documented clean finding looks like.
Pinkston has less to inspect
Pinkston has never held elected office and entered this race as a first-time candidate, leaving voters without years of government spending, staff management or campaign records comparable to Blackburn’s.
That does not establish greater ethical conduct.
It establishes less historical evidence.
The same principle applies throughout this series.
The longer someone holds power, the larger the record becomes.
More votes.
More employees.
More money.
More decisions.
And inevitably, more opportunities for scrutiny.
Accountability journalism fails when an accusation becomes a verdict.
It also fails when the absence of a conviction becomes proof that every underlying concern was meaningless.
I am a retired detective and criminal justice / government educator based in Tennessee. I founded The Redemption Project, as a place to focus on civics, rebuild non-partisan trust, and provide educational and emotional grace while learning about the news. I also have a column in Knox TN Today. My reporting and commentary have also appeared in other outlets including; Governing, The Arizona Capitol Times, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Police1, among other state and regional outlets.
