Perhaps no election in recent decades has so captured the attention of the American public as this one.

More than anything else, that phenomenon reflects voters’ low opinion of the Bush presidency. People feel as though things have gotten so bad that we better get it right this time.

We are not endorsing a candidate for president in the primary elections Feb. 5. None of the major contenders has endorsed full equality for gays and lesbians—that includes marriage equality—so none of them deserve our unequivocal support.

That said, the three leading candidates for the Democratic nomination—Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama—would represent a tremendous improvement for GLBTs and would no doubt advance GLBT rights more than any president in history. We urge our readers to take a close look at all three. Two of them—Clinton and Obama—have deep roots in Chicago as well and both represent a chance for American voters to make history, either as the first female president or the first black president.

Our community’s leading GLBT advocacy organization has made a number of endorsements in state legislative races. We trust Equality’s judgment and urge our readers to strongly consider backing the candidates they’ve endorsed. Those candidates, their parties and the districts they’re running in are, for the Illinois Senate, Willie Delgado (D-2nd), Rickey Hendon (D-5th), Heather Steans (D-7th), Iris Martinez (D-20th), Mike Jacobs (D-36th) and Christine Radogno (R-41st), and for the Illinois House of Representatives, Edward Acevedo (D-2nd), Mike Boland (D-71st), Annazette Collins (D-10th), Barbara Flynn Currie (D-25th), Monique Davis (D-27th), Deborah Graham (D-78th), Michael Smith (D-91st), Art Turner (D-9th) and Eddie Washington (D-60th).

In the race for Cook County state’s attorney, we can point to three candidates on the Democratic side who’ve actively campaigned in the GLBT community—Anita Alvarez, Tom Allen and Larry Suffredin. We urge our readers to take a look at their positions and records before making a decision.

This newspaper has endorsed a number of candidates and we hope readers agree by voting for them. For Cook County Recorder of Deeds, we endorse Eugene Moore. His opponent, Ald. Ed Smith, has picked up a few politically motivated endorsements but has a consistent anti-gay record. We strongly urge our readers to vote for Moore.

For the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, we support Dean Maragos and Mariyana Spyropoulos. For Cook County Board of Review we endorse Jay Paul Deratany, who is openly gay.

In Cook County Circuit Court elections, we strongly urge our readers to vote for two highly qualified, openly gay candidates: James Snyder, in the 10th subcircuit, and Aaron Weiss, running in the 8th subcircuit. We also urge support for two other judicial candidates running countywide: Lauretta Higgins Wolfson and Jesse Reyes.

While they don’t face opponents, we also want to take this opportunity to express our support for a number of other legislative candidates. Those candidates include Illinois’ only openly gay legislator, Rep. Greg Harris (D-13th), and an openly lesbian candidate running for the first time, Deborah Mell (D-40th). Other legislators who’ve earned our community’s support include Sens. Emil Jones (D-14th) and John Cullerton (D-6th), as well as Reps. Sara Feigenholtz (D-12th), John Fritchey (D-11th), Connie Howard (D-34th), Julie Hamos (D-18th), Lou Lang (D-16th), Michael Madigan (D-22nd) and Harry Osterman (D-14th).

We hope that each and every one of our readers takes the time to vote Feb. 5. This is an important election, perhaps the most critical election Americans have held in almost 75 years. Our country and our democracy are in dire need of reform. Only you, the voters, can apply the necessary guidance for that reform. Please exercise your rights and your responsibilities carefully and thoughtfully in this election.