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“As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney had the best jobs record in a decade.”
The Romney campaign based this claim on a comparison of every Massachusetts governor who held office during the past decade -- looking at the full term for each person, even if it extends past the decade mark.
The list includes Jane Swift, Romney and Deval Patrick, in chronological order.
The first thing we should point out is that we’re looking at very different time frames and economic conditions for each governor.
In terms of time, Swift served about 21 months from roughly April 2001 through December 2002.
She inherited the governorship when Paul Cellucci resigned the post to become U.S. Ambassador to Canada in 2001.
Romney served a full four-year term, or 48 months, and opted against running for reelection.
Patrick won the governorship in January 2007, and he’s in the midst of a second term -- he has 64 months on record with the BLS.
As for economic conditions, Romney has an advantage: he’s the only governor on the list who wasn’t in office during a national recession.
His term fell conveniently between two rough spells.
By comparison, the first economic downturn of the George W. Bush era took hold at about the same time Swift became governor, and the Great Recession started about one year after Patrick’s first term began.
Average monthly change
Swift: -6,800 jobs
Romney: +600 jobs
Patrick: -300 jobs
So Romney’s meager numbers earn him the top prize in this case, but we should note that the tenor changes if you compare his tenure with earlier times.
Let’s apply the same metric to the period before Romney left office.
This time, the “decade” includes Romney, Swift, Cellucci (July 29, 1997 – April 10, 2001) and William Weld (January 3, 1991 – July 29, 1997).
For what it’s worth, Cellucci took over the governorship after President Bush nominated Weld to be U.S. Ambassador to Mexico; the Senate rejected that nomination.
Here are the numbers:
Average monthly change
Weld: +2,500 jobs
Cellucci: +5,800 jobs
Swift: -6,800 jobs
Romney: +600 jobs
As you can see, Romney gets crushed by two of his predecessors.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ng-leadership/2012/06/12/gJQArQUQXV_blog.html
The Romney campaign based this claim on a comparison of every Massachusetts governor who held office during the past decade -- looking at the full term for each person, even if it extends past the decade mark.
The list includes Jane Swift, Romney and Deval Patrick, in chronological order.
The first thing we should point out is that we’re looking at very different time frames and economic conditions for each governor.
In terms of time, Swift served about 21 months from roughly April 2001 through December 2002.
She inherited the governorship when Paul Cellucci resigned the post to become U.S. Ambassador to Canada in 2001.
Romney served a full four-year term, or 48 months, and opted against running for reelection.
Patrick won the governorship in January 2007, and he’s in the midst of a second term -- he has 64 months on record with the BLS.
As for economic conditions, Romney has an advantage: he’s the only governor on the list who wasn’t in office during a national recession.
His term fell conveniently between two rough spells.
By comparison, the first economic downturn of the George W. Bush era took hold at about the same time Swift became governor, and the Great Recession started about one year after Patrick’s first term began.
Average monthly change
Swift: -6,800 jobs
Romney: +600 jobs
Patrick: -300 jobs
So Romney’s meager numbers earn him the top prize in this case, but we should note that the tenor changes if you compare his tenure with earlier times.
Let’s apply the same metric to the period before Romney left office.
This time, the “decade” includes Romney, Swift, Cellucci (July 29, 1997 – April 10, 2001) and William Weld (January 3, 1991 – July 29, 1997).
For what it’s worth, Cellucci took over the governorship after President Bush nominated Weld to be U.S. Ambassador to Mexico; the Senate rejected that nomination.
Here are the numbers:
Average monthly change
Weld: +2,500 jobs
Cellucci: +5,800 jobs
Swift: -6,800 jobs
Romney: +600 jobs
As you can see, Romney gets crushed by two of his predecessors.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ng-leadership/2012/06/12/gJQArQUQXV_blog.html