jquery-tmpl not working with href links

jquery-tmpl not working with href links

Having trouble getting jquery-tmpl to create dynamic href links. The name shows up correctly but I can't seem to get data inserted into template placeholders inside href tags.

HTML
  2. <ul class="list1">
  3. <li class="leftnavlink"><a href="/categories/${id}">${name}</a></li>
  4. </ul>

JavaScript
  1. jQuery('ul.list1:first li:first').tmpl(categoriesData).appendTo('ul.list1');

JSON
  2. var categoriesData = [{"id":"20","name":"Aero Parts & Exterior","product_count":"0"},
  3.      {"id":"33","name":"Front End","product_count":"0"},
  4.      {"id":"39","name":"Front Bumper","sub_categories":[],"product_count":"0"},
  5.      {"id":"40","name":"Front Spoiler \/ Diffuser","product_count":"0"}];