The race for the White House is now official.

The candidates are set, donations are rolling and political parties are moving into full swing.

From now until Nov. 8 we will be educated, inundated, motivated, exasperated and maybe even nauseated by promises and posturing on the national stage.

Mainers will be among the millions of voters deciding who will sit in the Oval Office, but in ratio to the rest of the nation, our collective influence is not terribly powerful.

Our real political power is within the state, selecting who goes to the State House in January.

We picked most of the legislative candidates during the June primary and the deadline to name replacement candidates was July 25, so the final roster is set. Candidates are already knocking on doors and announcing endorsements, but what does that really tell us about them?

What do you really need to know about a candidate to decide whether you want that person to represent you?

Do you want to know whether they support raising the minimum wage? Will a candidate stand behind your Second Amendment rights? Your First?

Are improved roads important to you, or is it more important to improve education?

What taxes and services do you want to see eliminated? What do you want added?

Is party affiliation alone enough to decide your vote, or do you want to know what skills a candidate brings to the office?

Here’s your chance to find out.

The Sun Journal will soon be asking all legislative candidates in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties to complete a questionnaire as part of our pre-election coverage. We’ll publish their responses in an Election Guide so you can compare positions and consider differences.

We’ll ask basic information about them, including political and professional experience, but the more important questions are about candidates’ positions on spending, the environment, jobs, taxes, energy, transportation and a host of other things decided at the State House that have very real consequences on our lives, our finances and our futures.

What do you want to ask the candidates?

Send your questions to jmeyer@sunjournal.com, subject line Candidate Question, and we’ll get answers. Deadline to submit questions is Sunday, Aug. 14.