Candidates in the 2nd Congressional District agree the most important issues facing the nation in 2010 are creating jobs and igniting economic growth.

Opponents of Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., say there’s one more: the incumbent’s record of service on those and other matters in his decade in Congress.

Republicans John Koster of Arlington and John Carmack of Bellingham and Democrats Larry Kalb and Diana McGinness, both also of Bellingham, are trying to prevent Larsen from securing a sixth term.

Koster, a Snohomish County councilman, is viewed as the most likely to move on from the Aug. 17 primary. If that happens, it will be a rematch of the 2000 election for this office in which Larsen defeated Koster.

All four challengers describe the congressman as having lost touch with those he represents. While this is a typical charge against incumbents, it could resonate more loudly this year amongst the discontented mood of voters.

“We have not seen any results in 10 long years, five terms from Rick Larsen,” Kalb said. “We expected a whole lot more.”

Larsen defended his work while acknowledging the electorate is uneasy about those in power this year.

“In 10 years, I am still focused on what’s important to the district. That hasn’t changed at all,” he said. “This is not my job. This is a privilege. Voters get to give it, and voters get to take it away.”

The 2nd Congressional District is geographically large. It stretches from Everett north to the Canadian border and includes four entire counties — Whatcom, Skagit, Island and San Juan.

It is also politically diverse. President Barack Obama picked up 70 percent of the vote in San Juan County in 2008 while months later Arlington was ground zero for the effort of religious conservatives to overturn a state law expanding rights for same-sex couples.

Larsen, 45, a former lobbyist and Snohomish County councilman, said his priority is to do anything he can to encourage creation of jobs.

“There is not a silver bullet answer to the economy right now,” he said.

In this term, he’s backed measures to free up credit for small business as well as the federal stimulus and bank bailout legislation. He voted for the federal health care and Wall Street reform bills this term and for continued funding of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ask about his career, he cites establishing the Wild Sky Wilderness and preventing closure of Naval Air Station Whidbey as two of his most important achievements.

He said he’s criticized by those on his political left for not championing national issues more loudly, he said, “In the world of show horses and work horses, I’ll do my best to be a work horse.”

To those on his political right seeking repeal of the health care and Wall Street reform laws, he said that would be a retreat from progress and harm economic recovery.

“This race is a choice between going forward and trying to turn the economy around or going backward on a path that got us this bad economy in the first place.

Koster, 58, who won a third and final term on the Snohomish County Council in 2009, said policies backed by Larsen have done more to stymie than stimulate the economy.

“I think our country is headed in the wrong direction,” he said. “There aren’t easy solutions, but there are solutions.”

He backs lowering taxes, reducing regulation of private business and eliminating some federal agencies such as the Department of Education. He also has called on Larsen to support extension of tax cuts approved in 2001 and 2003. Those expire at the end of the year, and it’s not clear what the Democratic majority in Congress will do about them.

Koster, a staunch social conservative, is vying for attention and aid from national Republican leaders. He gained a bit of that when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed him.

Kalb, 55, works in the finance department of the Whatcom Transportation Authority.

Kalb said one way to invigorate the economy would be to rewrite the major free trade agreements such as NAFTA because they are allowing work to leave this country.

“To create jobs here in the U.S., I want to see products stamped made in USA, by Americans for Americans,” he said.

He doesn’t like the health care bill — “this was the biggest tax giveaway in U.S. history” — and wants troops pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We are very, very tired of Rick approving war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, and we know darn well we are not going to win those wars,” he said.

McGinness, 59, a retired insurance fraud investigator, said she was disappointed the health care bill didn’t come out stronger with a public option and tougher rules to control costs on patients.

She said she’s become frustrated with Larsen who she terms a “corporate Democrat” too closely aligned with moneyed interests that fund his campaigns.

She got in the race to “bring to the table my concerns about him and move him to the left.”

Carmack, 64, who is unemployed and living on a boat in Bellingham, said he shares many of the same views as Koster.

He calls for lowering taxes, cutting spending and repealing the health care and financial institution reform bills. He also wants to axe government agencies including those created under the Patriot Act.

“If we don’t turn the economy around in short order, the economy is going to collapse and the country is going to collapse and we will lose our constitutional freedoms.”

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.