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With Oregon’s unemployment numbers a whole percentage point above the national average, politicians in the state are emphasizing jobs during their campaigns for upcoming elections.

Even the two candidates running for Metro council president are focusing on how the regional government body can help create jobs.

But while Bob Stacey and Tom Hughes agree the issue needs to be a priority, they differ on how the tri-county area and its 1.5 million residents should make it happen.

“Quality of life is Metro’s job if you (were to) put it on a bumper sticker,” said Stacey, a land-use attorney whose resume includes past stints as executive director of 1000 Friends of Oregon and chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer. “And quality of life for most in the area right now starts with finding a job for themselves or a loved one.”

Stacey wants to create jobs by removing the barriers to using land already within the urban growth boundary, like brownfield sites and other plots where reuse is financially infeasible.

“We need to address the land we already have,” he said Tuesday night during a candidates’ debate sponsored by the Oregon chapter of the Urban Land Institute. “That want doesn’t come from starry-eyed dreams. It comes from over 35 years experience looking at the problems of this area from four different government positions.”

Hughes, on the other hand, said he thinks the Metro president should play a significant role in attracting businesses to the area. That’s what he did as mayor of Hillsboro, where he helped attract SolarWorld, Pacific University’s Health Professions campus, an Intel development facility and a Genentech facility.

“Recruiting companies isn’t something the Metro president has had to do, but I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Hughes said. “In Hillsboro it helped so much to have the mayor, the political figure, making those calls and making those visits.”

Besides job creation, the two candidates also spoke about one of the bigger issues in the region right now: the proposed Columbia River Crossing project.

“The CRC is going to be subject to tolls; there’s no question about that,” Hughes said. “But where we are proposing to toll is wrong.”

Hughes said he thinks the tolls should be on the interchanges north and south of the actual bridge. Considering that the bridge accounts for only $900 million of the project’s $3 billion to $4 billion cost, bridge users shouldn’t be the only ones responsible for paying for it, he said.

Hughes also suggested that one of the first things he would look into is finding a way to make sure that everyone is paying a fair share of the toll.

“I don’t want the guy that has a family and has to be at his job at an exact time to bear the brunt of this (as) opposed to someone who has a little more flexibility and can avoid a toll time,” he said. “This just needs to be fair, and I want to help make sure of that.”

Hughes believes the project is ready to move forward, and that Metro could help with him at the helm.

Stacey, on the other hand, is less convinced because of the scale begin considered.

“The problem is the CRC project is not achieving the takeoff velocity it needs,” Stacey said. “As the independent review panel set up by the governors suggested, this project has deep issues.”

Instead of building a bridge with 10 or 12 lanes, for example, Stacey has suggested building one with only six.

“If you build a bridge that big, more people are going to use it and, in turn, the interstate and nearby roads in North Portland will become even more congested than they already are,” he said. “If you are going to build a bridge that big then you are going to need to redo Interstate 5 from the bridge to the south edge of Portland. And that isn’t on anyone’s radar or in anyone’s checkbook.”