Don Vaughan (politician)

Donald Ray Vaughan, known as Don Vaughan (born 1952), is an attorney in private practice and a Democratic former member of the North Carolina State Senate from his native Greensboro, North Carolina. He was among the lawmakers who pushed to passage in 2010 Susie's Law, which gives judges the authority to sentence convicted perpretators of cruelty to animals to a maximum of ten months in jail.^[2]

Background

In 1974, Vaughan received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1976, he obtained a Master of Public Administration degree from American University in Washington, D.C. His Juris Doctor followed in 1979 from Wake Forest University School of Law in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He was a legislative clerk to Democratic former U.S. Senator Robert Burren Morgan until Morgan was unseated in 1980 by the Republican John Porter East. Vaughan is a former adjunct professor for the School of Public Affairs at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. From 1981 to 1991, he was vice president of the Stedman Corporation. Vaughan served on the Greensboro City Council from 1991 to 2005 and as Mayor Pro Tem from 1996 to 2001. From 1998 to 2009, he was an appointed member of the North Carolina Banking Commission. From 1998 to 2009, he was the town attorney for Pleasant Garden, North Carolina. Vaughan was elected to the state Senate in 2008 and from 2011 to 2012 was the deputy minority leader in a heavily Republican body.^[3]

Vaughan and his wife, Nancy, have a daughter, Catherine. He has two stepsons. Vaughan is a member of the United States and the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, Greensboro Rotary International, and the North Carolina Bar Association. He sits on the board of the North Carolina Textile Manufacturers Association. He is a Sunday school teacher at the large Westminster Presbyterian Church.^[3]

State senate career

Vaughan was elected in 2008 to fill the District 27 state senate seat vacated by Kay Hagan, who instead unseated Republican Elizabeth Dole to become North Carolina's junior U.S. senator. He was succeeded in 2013 by the Republican Trudy Wade.

Susie's Law was passed unanimously in the North Carolina State Senate, was signed into law by then Governor Beverly Perdue, Vaughan's fellow Democrat, and took effect on December 1, 2010. In the film Susie's Hope, based on the animal-cruelty law, Vaughan is played by Jon Provost, former child actor on CBS's Lassie. ^[4][5]

Vaughan compiled a generally liberal voting record in the state Senate, particularly on abortion. In 2009, as a freshman senator, he voted for a state indoor smoking ban and to permit lottery sales at check-cashing sites. In 2011, he voted unsuccessfully to uphold Governor Perdue's veto of legislation which requires doctors to provide certain information at least twenty-four hours before an abortion can be legally performed. The information includes the gestational age of the child, the amount of public assistance available for neonatal children, and the risks of both carrying the child to term or having an abortion. Vaughan voted against Senate-approved restrictions on the payment of extended unemployment compensation; the measure was vetoed by Perdue. In 2011, he opposed submitting a constitutional amendment to voters to define marriage as between one-man and one-woman, a measure which voters handily approved in 2012. In 2012, his last full year in the Senate, Vaughan voted against the successful attempt to override Perdue's veto of a bill that limits the use of statistical evidence to establish that racial discrimination may have been a significant factor in the decision to seek or impose the death penalty.^[6]

In 2011, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina rated Vaughan 100 percent. That same year the American Civil Liberties Union ranked him 33 percent, compared to 60 percent in 2009. In 2009 and 2010, he was rated 100 percent by the North Carolina Federation of Independent Business. In 2012, the League of Conservation Voters netted Vaughan a lifetime score of 70 percent. The National Rifle Association rated him "B+" in 2010. In 2012, the American Conservative Union in North Carolina ranked Vaughan 22 percent.^[7]

References