MARBLEHEAD � Sixth Congressional District voters will have at least three candidates to choose from on Election Day in November.

Marbleheader Christopher Stockwell, an independent candidate, announced last week that he had submitted more than 3,500 signatures to qualify for the Nov. 4 ballot.

�What I hear over and over is that people are sick and tired of the partisanship, the gridlock and the lack of progress,� Stockwell said. �That�s why I�m running for Congress.�

Stockwell, 53, and his wife, Joanie, have lived in Marblehead for the past 29 years. They grew up and met in Farmington, Conn., a �small town like Marblehead but with more farmland.�

Marblehead is where they�ve raised their three children, Jason, 23, Thomas, 21, and Julia, 16.

Stockwell, who has never run for office before, is the seventh candidate, including Congressman John Tierney, to throw his or her hat into the November election.

Voters can anticipate Stockwell and unopposed Republican challenger Richard Tisei on the November ballot. On the other�hand, Tierney, a nine-term incumbent, must survive a primary featuring five Democrats next month to land on the ballot.

Stockwell took a leave of absence from his job as a top marketing officer and vice president for the engineering firm GEI Consultants Inc. to run for office.

On Thursday morning, Aug. 7, he sat in Atomic Caf� on School Street, eager � to the point where he could hardly sit still at times � to talk about three issues on which he is basing his campaign: job creation, the national debt and congressional gridlock.

He believes a lack of a vision has led to the country�s $17-trillion national debt, a crisis he says can be abated through a three-pronged approach: reducing the size of the federal government, passing bipartisan legislation that mitigates market risk and doubt, and, most importantly, creating a trust fund to would chop away at the debt.

Of all the candidates, Stockwell believes he has the most business experience to spur economic growth in the region, as his career in the private sector spans three decades in six different industries.

His business acumen, he said, contrasts the other candidates: two attorneys, a Marine, a real estate agent and two academics.

�With our innovation, our culture and creativity and our academia, what we need to do is have an economic plan that�s packaged and then promote it,� he said.

When asked to cite specific industries that need developing or improving here, he hesitated.

�Beware of people who think they have that answer,� he said, adding that he believed the region lacked a big-picture plan for economic development and job creation.

What is out there, he said, is siloed local plans, which create competition when collaboration is what is needed.

�We need a bigger round table that has a diversity of people sitting at it � businesses, academics, nonprofits, leaders, officials,� he said. �This focus group of sorts, which I would create, would produce a strategic plan that incorporates new ideas and what is already out there into it.�

Stockwell said he has dreamt about running for Congress for sometime and began seriously considering it in 2011, when he published a manifesto, titled �An Urgent Call to the True American Majority: Rise Up and Be Heard,� a copy of which he brought to the interview.

He explained that the document had been a byproduct of his frustration with Congress, partisan polarization, the debt-ceiling crisis and the last-minute deal to avert a government shutdown and what Stockwell saw as a need for more meeting in the middle among lawmakers.

�Most of us populate the center-left and center-right quadrant of the political spectrum, away from both fringes,� Stockwell wrote. �Yet, the fringes rule our country. They do not speak for all of us.�

In Massachusetts, nearly 53 percent of registered voters have no official political affiliation, and it�s this voting bloc Stockwell believes his message will resonate with most.

Democrats, by comparison, make up nearly 36 percent, and Republicans account for more than 11 percent of registered voters in the state, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin�s office.

�I�m a fierce centrist that believes in the importance of progress. Congress hasn�t made progress in the past five years,� Stockwell said. �If the parties aren�t doing the business of the people, we don�t elect their candidates. It�s that simple.�

Stockwell is quick to cite a June Gallup Poll that revealed that only 7 percent of Americans now say they have a �great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress, down from 10 percent in 2013.

Stockwell sees his campaign as a conduit for the 6th District to abandon the two-party system, calling his election a moment that could �make a statement.�

�This isn�t a �I�m going to fix everything when I�m elected in November,�� he said. �The solution to gridlock is going to take three to four cycles of congressional elections.�

Over those cycles, Stockwell believes by 2018 � 28 independents will be elected, carving out a spot in the House where �centrist coalition� is created.

�That coalition assumes enormous common-ground clout,� Stockwell said, �because without their consent, without their help, legislation doesn�t pass."