Terry McAuliffe, Shameless

Stepping off my usual beat for a moment — Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic fundraiser who has faltered in his run for governor of Virginia, is out with a final TV ad arguing that he’s the party’s strongest candidate. The ad flashes this graphic as an announcer explains: “a businessman who’s created thousands of jobs, says The Washington Post.”

The claim comes from this May 19 fact-check of McAuliffe’s boasts about job creation. The Post determined that the candidate was telling the truth, with some caveats:

McAuliffe led a home-building company in Florida that did, indeed, create thousands of jobs in the construction trades. And most of those jobs were union.

But McAuliffe never created jobs in Virginia, despite claiming on the campaign trail that he started five businesses here. (McAuliffe did create five businesses in Virginia, but all are investment partnerships registered to his home address in McLean, and none has employees).

This is the sort of thing that would hurt McAuliffe in a general election, although if polls are to be believed he won’t make it that far.