If you haven’t heard, there are elections this year. And while Washington gets in a tizzy about who is going to control the U.S. Congress come November, we’re a little more interested in the local.

We’ll be focusing our energies on the various candidates for public office in the District. We’ll be heading out to debates, asking questions, probing backgrounds and digging through dumpsters — all to get DCist the scoop on what’s what in the local races. And while we realize we’re no Washington Post, we’ll just steal their stuff and call it our own when it suits us.

For now, peer on down the left side of the site, where we have set up a special “Election 2006” box. In it we’ll provide our own coverage and links to the relevant candidates. We’ve started small, but we’ll keep adding as the days and months go on. If you want to peruse what we have written in the last year and change on any of the candidates or issues, head on down to the bottom of the site and use our nifty Rollyo search engine.

And as usual, if you have any tips or rumors you’d like recklessly spread, please drop us an email.