Dear Candidates for All Oakland City Races, All Alameda County Races, and All BART and AC Transit Races (and yes, you school board folks as well):

Oakland Local invites all candidates and their authorized representatives to post their views and platforms on Oakland Local. If you have perspectives you'd like to share, we welcome your sharing them here, so long as you identify yourselves as candidates or members of the campaign via a verified account (that means we need to speak to you on the phone to give you posting privileges after you send us an email expressing interest and sign up to post on the site.)  Also, we want everyone to recognize that OL is not expressing an endorsement of any candidate or view by posting this coverage, or any coverage, to the site.

In addition, we invite all local Oakland residents and those who work in Oakland to contribute blog posts about their questions and views on  the candidates, and to share their vierws.  Rules: Must use real name and have verifable email address and phone number. Must disclose any affiliations with candidates you are endorsing. No slamming, hate speech, keep it courteous.

In addition, we welcome OL community members' questions for the candidates and comments on the issues--send to editor@oaklandlocal.com or post in the comments,

For a complete list of candidates running, check our list (corrections and additions welcomed). See Who is running for what? A reference list for Oakland and Alameda County  http://bit.ly/avuFNy

Note: Publication does not consider endorsement of any candidates or views.

Photo by Greenkozi, http://www.flickr.com/photos/themacinator/4681944057/in/photostream/