TOPSHAM, Maine — Perched atop a stool surrounded by floodlights, two television cameras and a hostess armed with four questions for him to answer off the cuff, Matt Jacobson appeared as relaxed as if he were sitting at his own breakfast table.

“Of course you know this is tape-delayed, so we can start over on a response if you need to,” said Kim Lindoff, hostess of the cable program “Inside Maine Business.” She quipped that in an earlier interview with another gubernatorial candidate, she’d started over several times herself.

Jacobson began the scene with a smile toward the camera before smoothly turning to Lindoff and answering her four questions with barely a pause or a stutter. If it seemed natural to Jacobson, that’s because it was. After all, he is a former host of “Inside Maine Business.”

“In front of the cameras, during speeches and in the debates, this is where I do best,” said Jacobson, one of seven Republicans seeking the party’s nomination in the June 8 gubernatorial primary, during an interview later that day. “It’s where I really connect with people.”

Jacobson declared his official candidacy for governor one year ago, but he was campaigning at least a year before that. Like the other gubernatorial candidates, Jacobson has built his campaign around economic development and creating jobs, which are two goals he insists he is uniquely qualified to accomplish.

Since 2006, Jacobson has been president and chief executive officer for Portland-based Maine & Company, a business recruitment and development firm that his website says has created 1,500 new jobs since its inception.

“No other candidate can say that,” he reminds people wherever he goes, often revising the number of new jobs to 2,000.

His experience recruiting businesses offered him the flip side of his previous job running businesses — namely Chicago-based Canadian National Railways and then the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad in Maine, where Jacobson was president and chief executive officer for four years. His conclusion after those experiences is that it is exceedingly difficult to do business in Maine, but that the problem is solvable.

“This is the 100-year flood, our generation’s chance to completely reform what we do,” he said. “Let’s not go incremental. Let’s make bold change, and let’s fix it.”

And bold change is what Jacobson promises, beginning on his first day in office.

“On the first day I am going to ask for every political appointee in state government to resign,” he said. “Not all of them will and I understand that, but I want a new team. The ones that won’t resign, we’ll fire them.”

Replacing political appointees is hardly a new concept for an incoming governor, said Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine. Neither is a candidate who touts his experience from outside the political realm.

“Maine people often will be OK with someone who comes from the outside, but the candidate has to demonstrate they have knowledge,” said Fried. “This does seem to be, particularly nationally, an election where there’s more of a turn toward outsiders, and that’s particularly strong within the Republican Party.”

However, the fact that there are seven Republicans in the primary might bode well for a candidate with direct government experience, according to Fried.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if someone with a lot of experience like Peter Mills ends up with the nomination,” said Fried. “There are so many candidates, it’s hard to see how this might play out.”

Jacobson has created a reputation for himself on the campaign trail by responding to questions by saying the real question is something else. Asked how he would control spending within the Department of Education, for example, Jacobson’s response is usually that there’s not enough of a focus on results.

“The problem is not the money,” he said. “The problem is that we’re funding a system today that is failing. We’re going to spend $4 billion on education in the next biennium. There’s got to be money in there for our priorities.”

Jacobson, who favors charter schools and taking steps to increase Maine’s high school graduation rate, said the use of technology is the best way to improve the education system with the side effect of controlling costs.

“I want to focus on excellence, not cost,” he said. “If you’re a kid in Greenville and you happen to be talented in history, why can’t we Skype it? When the best universities in the world are offering degrees online, why can’t we teach an AP history class to a kid in Greenville? This is not pie in the sky.” Skype is an online tool that allows users to communicate through a live video and audio connection.

On questions about the Department of Health and Human Services, Jacobson also steers the question away from the money and toward the results. He, like some other Republican candidates, sees Maine’s welfare system as “warehousing people in poverty.” Jacobson favors a tiered system that takes people off welfare gradually as they increase their income and imposes a five-year lifetime limit on receiving welfare benefits.

“I think the mission in government ought to be creating an environment of opportunity so that people can take care of themselves,” he said. Asked how he’ll deal with the considerable push-back a proposal like that would trigger, Jacobson said the key is educating Maine people.

“Once people understand that this is not about being mean and it’s not about stealing from poor people and that it’s actually about helping them, people will get on board with that,” he said. “And by the way, we can save money in the process.”

As for Maine’s business climate, Jacobson favors streamlining the regulatory environment, particularly for startup businesses. To do that, he would require a maximum 120-day turnaround for new or expanding business applications, regardless of what state or local government agency handles them.

“In Maine right now, we’re five-and-a-half years to maybe,” he said. “I’m not suggesting that we lower our standards, but everyone in my administration is going to be focused on creating jobs. They’ll all need to be prepared to say yes or no to a business within 120 days.”

For Jacobson, the difference between himself and the other candidates is his leadership experience, the foundation of which was built while he was a student at the U.S. Naval Academy and subsequently as an Air Force pilot. He sees the office of governor as a stewardship post not unlike serving in the military or overseeing a railroad.

“What you learn on your second day on the railroad is that you’re a steward of that railroad, and that someone else is going to be running it 150 years from now,” he said. “It’s about that chain of connection where you feel an obligation to leave things better for the next person. As you go through a campaign like this, you see among the older folks and kids that there’s this notion that we’re breaking that chain. Our generation is potentially going to leave things worse than we found them.

“Not on my watch,” he continued. “I feel an enormous sense of obligation, and I have a skill set that can help.”

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Name: Matt Jacobson

Age: 49. Born Feb. 4, 1961.

Education: Graduate of U.S. Naval Academy, master of business administration from Chapman University.

Career: Since 2006, he has been president and CEO of Portland-based Maine & Company, which aims to attract businesses to Maine. Assistant vice president at Canadian National Railways in Chicago 2000-2005; president and CEO of St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad in Auburn 1996-2000. He worked for CSX railroad company 1991-1996. Pilot in the U.S. Air Force 1984-1991, serving in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Family: Lives in Cumberland with wife, Kate, and two children, Hank and Maggie.

Quote: “Maine can be a place where hard work is rewarded with opportunity, where our children can realize their dreams and our people have hope.”

Funding: Private