The Tennessee Republican Party today calls on state Rep. Nathan Vaughn, D-Kingsport, to stop blaming others for his failure to secure $100,000 in Community Enhancement Grant funding for the 2nd House District.

Vaughn missed the submission deadline for applications toward $100,000 in Community Enhancement Grants (CEG) for Sullivan County that were made available via legislation passed in the last session of the state legislature. In response to media coverage of his failure to secure the CEG funds for his district, Rep. Vaughn has lashed out at Republicans, accusing them of hypocrisy, of using smear tactics, of partisanship, of trying to discredit him, and of piling on for political reasons.

Rep. Vaughn has further chastised his Republican colleagues from Sullivan County for his failure to meet the CEG application deadline. While Vaughn has grudgingly admitted that he missed the deadline, he continues to try to shift blame to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office, the Tennessee Republican Party, and even to the grant applicants themselves.

But it was Rep. Vaughn who, for some unknown reason, chose to deviate from the established submission process for CEG applications.

“Rep. Vaughn is solely responsible for missing the deadline, and Rep. Vaughn is solely responsible for his district not receiving any CEG funds,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party. “His attempts to divert attention from that fact are merely smokescreens for inadequate performance.

“The rest of the Sullivan County delegation – House Minority Leader Jason Mumpower, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and state Rep. Jon Lundberg – followed the rules and did their job in a timely manner, and as a result secured the maximum allocation of CEG funds available for their respective House and Senate districts,” Hobbs said.

The Tennessee Republican Party also rejects Rep. Vaughn’s assertion that Republicans criticizing his failure are hypocritical because many Republicans across the state initially opposed the grants program, and yet secured CEG funds for their districts. True, many Republicans did oppose the program as it was initially proposed, a loosely governed liberal pork-barrel handout program. Their opposition forced significant positive revisions to the program.

Because of Vaughn’s failure to follow the CEG rules and do his job in a timely manner, worthy grant applicants in the 2nd House District won’t get CEG funding unless the legislature adopts a “clean up” bill to allow the late applications. In the interest of helping worthy grant applicants in the 2nd District receive CEG funds, Republican legislators may indeed support such legislation.

In the meantime, rather than trying to shift blame, Rep. Vaughn ought to admit his failure, apologize for it, and expend less of his energy blaming Republicans and more of his energy finding solutions to the problems that he set in motion.

### TNGOP.org

December 12, 2007

Contact:
Bill Hobbs
Communications Director
Tennessee Republican Party
2424 21st Avenue, Suite 200
Nashville, TN 37212
billhobbs@tngop.org