Roanoke Mayor's race Fact check: Rasoul e-mail slams Bowers on jobs

The Sam Rasoul campaign sent an e-mail to media members recently titled: "1,000 Roanoke jobs have been lost in less than a week under Bowers' watch."

Yet, in a 10 On Your Side fact check, many of the examples the Rasoul camp cited in the email were from outside Roanoke City.

Rasoul is challenging Roanoke's incumbent mayor, David Bowers, in February 4th's Democratic firehouse primary at William Fleming High School.  Bowers will be seeking another term as mayor.

The e-mail cited layoffs at ITT Exelis as an example that more must be done by the mayor, in order to attract more jobs to the area.

However, ITT Exelis is in Roanoke County, not the city.

The e-mail also used a beer company Sierra Nevada's recent decision to locate a new restaurant and plant in North Carolina as an example.

However, Sierra Neveda looked at sites in Roanoke County and Montgomery County, again not the city.

The e-mail pointed out Food Lion's decision to close a Roanoke store as further proof of Bowers lack of leadership.  However, Food Lion said it was closing the store due to its under performance, along with 112 other underperforming stores in America.

We asked Rasoul if it was fair to blame Bowers for so many layoffs and decisions that he could not control.

"I think the big thing to understand is that there are several different cuts that happened," Rasoul said.  "Not only did we have ITT but we had 600 jobs that we could've brought here.  [The Carilion affiliated company, Solstas] actually said our proposal wasn't even close to High Point [North Carolina's] proposal to bring Solstas jobs here."

While it's true Solstas passed on Roanoke to add more jobs in the Triad area, Roanoke's economic development office said Bowers had nothing to do with the company's decision.

Solstas did not return a phone call seeking comment.

We found that, during Bowers' term in office, Roanoke has a net jobs gain and has reduced its unemployment by nearly a percentage point (Roanoke's unemployment rate is down 0.9 % compared to 2009).

Roanoke has also gained 1,659 jobs in just the past calendar year.

Mayor Bowers touted the fact that the city has added the Virginia Tech Carilion Medical School.

"[The medical school] is the biggest economic driver in the history of Roanoke, since the railroad came to town," Bowers said.

Rasoul pointed out that Roanoke's unemployment rate is still above the state average, which was at 5.7 % as of last November according to federal government statistics (Roanoke's current unemployment rate is 7.9 % according to the Roanoke-Alleghany Regional Commission).

City Democrats will have to decide which economic vision they support, as they pick a candidate to represent them in May's general election.

The vote is scheduled to take place at William Fleming High School on Saturday, February 4th, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.