October 12, 2010

Ehrlich & O'Malley debate #1

BALTIMORE - Education was the major topic as the candidates for Governor of Maryland squared off in their first face-to-face debate Monday morning in Baltimore. Governor Martin O’Malley, the Democratic incumbent is facing former Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich, who is seeking to reclaim the seat he lost to O’Malley in 2006.

The former governor said he would make Maryland more business friendly and attacked O’Malley’s record on job creation saying, “We have not created on new net job in this state over the past four years. That's a real problem. We’ve doubled our unemployment in fact, and that is a huge problem.”

Governor O’Malley acknowledged that Maryland has a long way to go to restore its job base that was lost in the recession, but said Ehrlich is ignoring gains made in new high technology sectors that the current administration has attracted to the state.

“The truth of the matter is we've created 33,000 net new jobs,” said O’Malley. “That’s not me saying that. That's Bureau of Labor Statistics and we have to continue to create jobs because we have deep hole to climb out of.”

The one-hour debate was taped at the studios of WJZ-TV in Baltimore. After both campaigns spent the summer in a statistical tie, O’Malley has been gaining momentum lately. The latest poll from Rasmussen Reports shows the current Governor leading 49 percent to 41 percent over Ehrlich, while The Washington Post’s Poll found O’Malley in the lead by 11 points. Election Day is November 2. SOURCE: FOX

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