The "Ehrlich on the attack" editorial of September 29th as well as several other articles in recent weeks included a discussion point about employment in Maryland.

Unemployment has been a constant topic of debate for the Maryland governor's race. One position stated is that Maryland is in bad shape while the other opinion is that Maryland is doing OK considering the national employment climate.

Here's a challenge that I'd like to be presented to the candidates: Show what the current Maryland private sector employment rate is now under the O'Malley administration versus what it was under the Ehrlich administration. Another area of interest is, what percent of contract employees providing services to state or local governments are employed by Maryland companies versus companies headquartered in other states? Again these percentages should be current numbers under Gov. Martin O'Malley versus the administration of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

If The Sun could present this challenge to the candidates and print the responses, I believe it would be of great benefit to voters because such data would show how Maryland compares to other states that primarily depend on private sector employment

Rick Schimpf, Pasadena