Who created more jobs, Illinois Republicans or Mitt Romney?

If you like the Illinois GOP, you’ll love Mitt Romney, Part 14.

In a Washington Times piece yesterday titled “Critics hit Romney job-creation record: Cite workers that left Massachusetts,” a little light is finally shined on the baloney surrounding Romney’s so-called economic policy expertise.

Illinoisans are familiar with ineffective Republicans and how their incompetence leads to jobs exiting the state. Evidently our state GOP establishment likes Mitt because they have something in common with him:

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Mitt Romney is fighting for votes in economically struggling Michigan by pointing to his job-creation record in Massachusetts for proof he can jump-start bad economies — but the drop in unemployment during his time as governor may be a result more of willing workers fleeing the state than from his own ability to spawn jobs.

In fact, Massachusetts had the weakest employment growth of any state from 2002 to 2006 except for Mississippi and Louisiana, which suffered the brunt of Hurricane Katrina, and Michigan itself, which was buffeted by the auto industry’s woes.

“The fact the unemployment rate went down had nothing to do with the policies of his administration,” said professor Andrew M. Sum, director of the center for labor market studies at Northeastern University in Boston. “We had one of the three worst job-creation rates in the country under his administration. The unemployment rate largely went down for one reason, because people withdrew from the labor force and left the state.”

Here’s another thing Illinois has in common with Massachusetts:

In all…222,000 more residents left Massachusetts than moved there during Mr. Romney’s time in office, making the state “a national leader in exporting our population.”

If this is the first you’re hearing of this, don’t be surprised. While it’s obvious, the news article does note that “Mr. Romney’s unemployment-rate claims have largely gone untested here in the run-up to election day…”