The Truth About Martin O’Malley’s ‘Stellar’ Record In Maryland

This column originally appeared on Forbes.com. Visit http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbrown/ for a complete archive of past columns.

Former Maryland Governor and current Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley would like Americans to believe that the progressive economic policies he foisted on Maryland made the state an economic powerhouse. Little could be more misleading.

In spite of the unacknowledged built-in “advantage” Maryland has over other states in its heavy subsidization by the federal government, and close proximity to Washington D.C. – providing Maryland with an artificially large tax base thanks to the wealthy lobbyists, lawyers and consultants minted during the Obama years – O’Malley’s supposedly stellar record still does not withstand scrutiny.

Let us review the real O’Malley economic resume as Maryland governor from 2007-2015:

Job creation was abysmal

As we have noted elsewhere, over Governor O’Malley’s 96 months in office (covering a full economic cycle), Maryland created a paltry ~5,000 jobs, or just two per day. By comparison, this puts O’Malley at worse on job creation than any other current or former gubernatorial presidential contender in the field, as illustrated in the below chart: