With the primary elections right around the corner on Feb. 5, don't forget to look at the Windy City Times Primary Election Guide www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Windy-City-Times-Election-Guide/17353.html .
With the goings-on in the presidential primaries, this election year is intriguing, to say the least.
The two main candidates on the Democratic side are Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, now that former Sen. John Edwards has dropped out of the race. On the Republican side, candidates include former Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain, former Gov. Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. There are also interesting developments locally. Deb Mell is unopposed in her race for state representative, ensuring that the Illinois General Assembly will soon have its first open lesbian. In addition, openly gay State Rep. Greg Harris, the main sponsor of the proposed civil-union bill, is also without an opponent.
Windy City Times does not endorse in political races. Rather, we send out questionnaires to candidates and rate their responses based on the total number of questions for that race. All candidates were sent the questionnaire. We also list the endorsements of various gay and progressive groups, and area bar associations.
Ask some people what a committeeman does, and blank stares and shrugged shoulders may result. In a feature in this issue, Windy City Times talked with Alderman Tom Tunney about the little-known role of a committeeman. This year, Tunney is running for re-election as committeeman of his ward.
Opinions are like noseseverybody's got one and, in this issue, several figures from various backgrounds let Windy City Times know who they are supporting in the presidential and local races. See 'Support System.'
There are several LGBT candidates running for office, including Democratic judicial candidates Aaron Weiss and Tom Doran as well as Jerome Pohlen, a Green Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Certain local races bear watching, such as the Cook County State's Attorney's race; we talk with five of the candidates. There is also a rather eye-opening interview with Board of Review incumbent commissioner Joseph Berrioswho is running against openly gay candidate Jay Paul Deratany. ( Deratany's interview, which ran in a past issue, can be found at www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Deratany-Seeks-Judicial-Post/116.html )
See past editions for interviews and articles on those candidates as well as other non-gay pols running for office www.windycitymediagroup.com . Follow the links below the bar at the bottom of this article. In this issue, you can find a few final stories plus our ratings and downloadable and printable endorsements grids at www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/2008-Primary-Election-downloadable-and-printable-charts/17357.html . You can take this guide into the polls with you Feb. 5.