In Salt Lake City, where domestic partner benefits are a hot issue, four candidates for City Council have received the endorsement of Equality Utah.

The state's nonpartisan lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political advocacy organization endorsed Leslie Benns, Janneke House, Councilwoman Jill Remington Love and Soren Simonsen. Equality Utah has also endorsed Russ Wall for Taylorsville Mayor, and Brian Elkins who is running for an at-large seat on the North Salt Lake City Council.

Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah, said the endorsements went to candidates "most aligned with Equality Utah's position statement. . . . A lack of endorsement doesn't necessarily mean a lack of common ground."

Those positions include measures to prevent discrimination and bias-motivated harassment and violence, such as anti-hate crimes legislation; and government support, protection and equal treatment for LGBT families through measures such as adopting domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples.

Thompson said the endorsements aren't directly centered on support — or lack thereof — for Mayor Rocky Anderson's executive order giving domestic partner insurance benefits to city employees, which is currently under court review. The City Council is looking at taking up a broader benefits package.

"I'm thrilled with it," said Benns, who is challenging incumbent Carlton Christensen for the District 1 seat in the Nov. 8 election.

"I believe in a world that works for everybody," she said. "That's why I ran."

Christensen, running for a third term, said he's not surprised he didn't get the endorsement because he didn't respond to the questionnaire.

"I probably would not have answered most of the questions in the manner their platform would want," he said. Christensen did say he'd be willing to look at broader benefits than what the mayor has proposed, such as including care for elderly parents.

District 3 Councilman Eric Jergensen said he's tried to work with Equality Utah on issues such as the recent creation of the city's Human Rights Commission, though he disagrees with Anderson on the domestic partner benefits.

Jergensen said he's among council members working on "a much broader package, that frankly I think is a much more equal package."

In District 5, Love is running unopposed. She said the endorsement "is important to me . . . I see it as an important civil rights issue."

Love said she "definitely" supports adding domestic partner benefits to the city's health insurance plan, but is also looking at a broader package than the mayor's.

District 7 candidates Simonsen, Gordon Poulson and Danny Walz couldn't be reached for comment. Nor could House, who is challenging Jergensen.

Thompson said while the endorsements are centered around Salt Lake City, some 449 candidate interview invitations were sent out statewide, in hopes of establishing enough common ground to start working relationships. About 5 percent of those resulted in some sort of a response.

"Equality Utah's vision is a fair and just Utah," Thompson said. "We are looking for candidates across the state who share that same vision."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com