The Rand Paul Campaign issued the following:

One of the key planks of establishment-backed Trey Grayson’s Senate campaign has been to paint himself as a fiscal conservative through claims that he cut spending 15 percent from his Secretary of State budget. Newly uncovered facts cast a shadow on those claims.

Documents obtained by the Rand Paul campaign show that Trey Grayson requested millions of dollars in budget increases during his tenure as Secretary of State. For example, the 2008 budget for the Office of Secretary of State was $3,132,500. But for 2009, Grayson’s office requested a budget of $4,335,600, a huge increase 38 percent.

In addition to requesting large spending increases, Grayson also opposed cuts to his budget. Media reports confirm that Grayson wrote letters to then State Budget Director Mary Lassiter, protesting the cuts to his budget and calling them a “bad move.”

“Career politicians like Trey Grayson will say anything to get elected, and Kentuckians are sick and tired of it,” said campaign manager David Adams. “Grayson boasts about cutting spending and doing ‘more with less,’ but I don’t know how he can do it with a straight face. Trey didn’t cut spending, he requested a ton of it and fought against budget cuts when they were forced on him.”

The Paul campaign has created a website, www.TreySpends.com, to highlight for Kentuckians both Grayson’s spending requests and opposition to budget cuts.