Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal thinks there’s something fishy about state-by-state unemployment data put out by the Obama administration.

“It’s ironic that in a year in which Republican governors are leading some of the states that are making the most progress — that they almost, without exception, are classified as having a bump in their unemployment rates. Whereas states that are under Democrat governors’ control, they are all showing that their unemployment rate has dropped. Now, I don’t know how you account for that,” the Republican said in a video posted to YouTube by the Democratic Governors Association, which is working to prevent his reelection in November.

“Maybe there is some influence here that we don’t know about,” he continued. “But when you say California is in a better position in terms of unemployment than the state of Georgia, there’s just something that just does not ring true.”

Deal’s suggestion appears to be that the Obama administration is manipulating data to make Republican governors look bad. The DGA called him an “unemployment truther” for his insinuation.

Georgia’s unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in August, the highest in the country, according to data issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Deal is in an unexpectedly close race against Jason Carter, the Democratic nominee for governor and grandson of former president (and Georgia governor) Jimmy Carter. Deal leads by 1.8 percentage points, according to the TPM PollTracker average.