Progress Illinois

Here's the latest news in the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate:

Cheryle Jackson released an internal poll yesterday, the results of which are consistent with surveys conducted by independent outfits and other campaigns: Alexi Giannoulias holds a healthy lead but plenty of primary voters are still undecided. From the memo, obtained by Capitol Fax:

If the election were held today, “undecided” would win the race, claiming 45% of the vote, with the candidates’ current positions relating largely to name ID. State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias starts out with 31% of the vote (just 16% of which is strong support), followed by Cheryle Jackson at 13% (7% strong). David Hoffman and Jacob Meister each draw support in the single digits (8% and 2%, respectively

Jackson also includes data showing that support for her campaign doubles once the candidates' positive messages are read, vaulting her into the lead. As usual, those types of results should be taken with a grain of salt. For instance, when David Hoffman informed voters of his background in his campaign's first public poll last month, his support jumped almost 30 percentage points. But as Rich Miller noted in his SouthtownStar column, the description offered to respondents "paint[ed] the man as almost a superhero."

Meanwhile, Giannoulias unveiled a new campaign website today. Like Hoffman's recently-revamped site, it includes a bunch of interesting bells and whistles. The campaign is making a serious effort to embrace the blogging community -- not surprising when you consider that Georgia Logothetis (otherwise known has DailyKos front-pager "Georgia10") is the campaign's director of new media.  To this end, they've included issue-specific RSS feeds, blogable pictures, and a fairly-clean mobile interface.  Their issue pages also feature related content. And the site's own blog is pretty spiffy.  Have a look around here.

The fourth candidate in the race, attorney and self-funder Jacob Meister, is officially the first of the Democratic contentders to go on air with a television ad. Here's the spot, which chronicles his trip to Springfield to file his nominating petitions:

ABC 7 reports that the ad is airing in Champaign, Springfield, and Peoria.

Meanwhile, Hoffman is continuing to churn out some well-produced campaign videos.  The newest one highlights his visits last Sunday to Alton (his wife's hometown) and Fairview Heights:

Full Disclosure: The SEIU Illinois State Council, which sponsors this website, has endorsed Alexi Giannoulias in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.