Willard Was A Failure As Governor

Ever wonder why Willard Mitt Romney doesn't campaign on his record as the governor of Massachusetts? It's because he was generally a dismal failure as governor. His only accomplishment was in signing the state's health care plan (the predecessor of Obamacare), and he has spent the whole campaign running away from that. Other wise, he was one of the worst governors the state has had. Here's how a commenter over at Huffington Post puts it:

Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts from 2002 through 2006. So Massachuesettians know him best. This is what they think :

1. OBAMA HAS HUGE LEAD IN MASS. Romney Trails Obama by 28% in Mass.

2. LOWEST APPROVAL IN MASS. HISTORY. Romney left office with the lowest approval rating in state history 34%.

He was elected by a 5% margin and had a 66% approval rating after he was elected. And it wasn't because he was a Republican. Massachusetts had elected three Republicans Governors before Romney. All of those Republican left office with high approval ratings. In fact, William Weld was elected twice in 1990 and 1994 and left office after two terms with 70% approval rating, the highest in state history.

Why did the voters sour on Romney so quickly? Look at his record:

3. JOB CREATION FELL. Job creation fell from 37th to 47th during Romney's term.

1998-2002 = 37th
2002-2006 = 47th

A drop of 10 places in four years.

During his 4 year term, Romney only increased the number of jobs by 1% compared to 5% for the nation

4. THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WORKING DECLINED. Between 2002-2006, the number of people working in Mass declined by 8,500, the only state to lose jobs. The rest of the country added 8 million jobs.

5. LOST MANUFACTURING JOBS. Romney lost 14% of the manufacturing jobs in the state, including 40,000 high paying manufacturing jobs.

6. PEOPLE LEFT MASS TO FIND WORK ELSEWHERE. A net 222,000 people moved out of Mass to seek employment else where, a loss of 3.5% of the work force. 

Romney brags that unemployment dropped, but that's because the unemployed had moved out of the state.

7. WAGES DROPPED. Between 2002-2004, wages dropped 5%. Between 2002-2006, the median wage fell by $10 or 2%.

8. SHIPPED STATE JOBS OVERSEAS. Romney vetoed legislation that would have prohibited sending State jobs overseas and bared state contractors from sending jobs overseas. He even sent State Call Center Jobs overseas.

9. INCREASED DEBT. Romney had the largest increase in debt of any Governor in the country, increasing it by more than $2.6 billion. He even borrowed money to pay for ordinary operating costs such as highway repair and maintenence.

10. INCREASED GOVERNMENT COST FALL ON MIDDLE CLASS.Romney cuts taxes for the wealthy, while increasing hundreds of fees that fall mainly on the middle class. 

And here are his sources:

1 -http://www.suffolk.edu/images/content/FINAL_MA_Statewide_Marginals_May_22_2012_FINAL.pdf
2 - http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollTrack.aspx?g=454ada23-20dc-41f0-9c0c-a8a2a45d653c
3 - http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mitt-romney-tries-to-play-the-jobs-card-2010-02-23?pagenumber=1
3 - http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=7H4
4,5,6,7,8,9 10 -http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/07/29/romneys_economic_record/