While watching the GOP presidential hopefuls in their first big debate last week, 90.7 economic analyst Hank Fishkind noticed a trend. Several former governors claimed their economic policies were so successful in their respective home states, that their economies outperformed the US as a whole. He singled out former Florida Governor Jeb Bush along with Louisiana’s Bobby Jindahl and Rick Perry of Texas for making similar statements.

But Fishkind says this is an exaggerated claim, because there’s a limit to what a governor can do to affect the economic health of a state.