The three candidates have launched their campaigns by posting their own ideas for the project on their websites:

Steve McIntyre is the oldest of the three and joined Debian in 1996. He campaigned for election in 2006 and 2007. One of his major objectives would be to improve communication within the project. He criticizes the fact that the previous project leaders have not been able to keep their promises in this respect. He would like people involved to ask for help if they are unable to fulfill the targets they have set themselves, before reality catches up with them. He views this as one of the main problems that affects the free Linux distribution: "Working effectively is not just important for our own gratification; it also makes a major impact on how long we take to release and the experience our users have with using Debian."

Frenchman Raphael Hertzog has been with the project since 1998 and campaigned for the post of project leader in 2002 and 2007. Hertzog is a self-employed developer and, just like last year, he would like to install a separate DPL committee – if he is elected -- in order to distribute responsibilities and thus to achieve project objectives more easily. One thing that is new is that Hertzog would like to restrict the committee to three people. Another of Hertzog’s goals is to improve external Debian’s visibility and to attract more help for the project.

Marc Brockschmidt is 22 years old and the youngest of the three candidates, having joined the Debian project in 2004. He is a student of computer science in Aachen, Germany. His objectives as a potential project leader include improving public perception of the free distribution. Although he believes that internal communications can't really be improved, he is interested in achieving a better exchange. For example, he seeks to open the "-devel" mailing list to anyone who is interested, and to improve interactions with Debian derivatives, such as Ubuntu.

The canvassing period is between March 9 and 30, and the candidates’ proposals will be discussed on the Internet during this time. The elections will be held between March 30 and April 13 with the new project leader officially taking up office April 17. The election is based on the fairly complex Condorcet method. The next project leader will probably be responsible for the next stable version 5.0, codename "Lenny", which is due for release this year.