The AC Transit campaign for the at-large seat and Ward 3 has produced a bumper crop of creative-thinking candidates.

At-large incumbent Chris Peeples, who is running for the first time after being appointed to fill a vacancy 10 months ago, is our choice for election. He has shown himself to be an innovative, thoughtful and progressive board member. He is well connected with legislators who can help AC Transit, and is knowledgeable about funding sources.

Since he joined the board, he had led his colleagues in focusing on policy instead of trying to micro-manage every bus movement. His opponent, Tony Brinkman, a city planner in a doctorate program at UC Berkeley, is knowledgeable about transit but is no match for Peeples.

In Ward 3, an area that covers Oakland, Piedmont and Alameda, two candidates are challenging veteran director Alice Creason, who cites her long list of endorsement and 10 years on the board as evidence she’s the best candidate. She also has a healthy campaign fund, and will be hard to beat.

Creason, former mayor of Piedmont, has served well but we think its time for a change in the district’s representation. We think Allan Shore is more in tune with the positive changes underway at AC Transit.

Shore, who lives in Alameda, is our choice as successor to Creason. Shore is committed to restoring bus service that has been drastically cut, including evening and owl service, and says he’ll be aggressive in finding new sources of funding at the state level.

Shore has been a community and nonprofit professional with community organizing agencies for the 14 years he has lived in the East Bay. He has worked successfully to improve neighborhoods, reduce homelessness, and maintain safe streets. Now he wants to apply his skills in working with the community to the AC Transit board.

He believes AC Transit is behind in its use of high technology in its operations, and thinks the board needs to listen more often to people who ride the buses before making decisions.

Lane Lowe, a downtown Oakland businessman, believes the district should create an AC Transit Transfer Center, and drop plans for street corner shelters that would require widening sidewalks and shrinking the width of Broadway.

We agree with Lowe that shelters would be a temporary, not appropriate, solution for 14th and Broadway congestion, but we are confident he can be effective as an active businessman in helping to establish the Transfer Center.

From our perspective, Shore would bring the energy and persistence needed to help shape the future of a city still searching its way through a post-Navy base closure age, changing demographics and pressures brought by the Bay Area’s jobs-housing imbalance.

Shore, assistant director of Alameda-based nonprofit Xanthos, long has championed public transit and intends to link the Island with regional transit systems. He also intends to do all he can to improve bus and ferry service, which he considers essential in preventing Alameda from choking on traffic that new housing developments and businesses threaten to generate.

Like many of the other candidates, Shore also sees affordable housing as one of the top issues facing Alameda and promises he will fight to make sure teachers, police officers and other lower-paid workers won’t be priced out of the city.

In De Witt, we believe Alameda will continue to benefit from his steady guidance and familiarity with the city and its issues. De Witt, who as a child grew up in an Alameda housing project and later became a U.S. Army colonel, is a strong advocate of youths. He played an instrumental role in getting the Cityview Skateboard Park started and in pushing for construction of a teen center at the former Navy base.

De Witt has the respect of his council colleagues and even of his political opponents, who consider him a shoo-in for re-election. We believe he has the leadership and vision to help the city convince developers to build an adequate supply of affordable housing and that he will push for the proper mix of housing, business development and recreation activities at Alameda Point.

It is also worth noting that De Witt and Shore are firsts in Alameda history, the former being the first African-American councilmember and Shore, if elected, the first openly gay councilmember.

We urge yes votes for Al De Witt and Allan Shore on Nov. 7.