It's a little under three months until the February 2 primary, but the Democratic gubernatorial battle has already been chock full of negative attacks.  The most recent round started late last week.  Check out our play-by-play below:

Friday, October 30
Comptroller Dan Hynes released yet another ad whacking Quinn for the income tax hikes included in his original budget proposal:

For the second time, the Hynes team uses a clip from Quinn's April interview with the Rockford Register-Star editorial board.  One important aside: Quinn clearly stated elsewhere in the discussion that he "thinks we should have a graduated income tax" -- the type of structure now being proposed by Hynes -- but also pointed out that such a policy would require amending the constitution.  Due to those limitations, he told the board that he would instead attempt "to find a progressive way to raise revenue."  An examination of Quinn's actions during the budget process shows that this is exactly what he attempted to do while also trying to reach some form of compromise with the tax-wary General Assembly.

Saturday, October 31
The Quinn camp responded by releasing a TV ad that hit Hynes for his virtual absence during the budget debate in June and July of this year.  "When Gov. Quinn had to make tough decisions to fix our budget mess," the narrator says, "Hynes skipped town, flying to Washington, taking a vacation, hitting a spa in Chicago."  Watch it:

The Tribune's Eric Zorn did a solid job of chronicling the two campaigns' subsequent back-and-forth over this ad.  The criticism has centered around the "spa" issue (it turns out the establishment in question is Hynes' neighborhood hair salon) as well as the ad's assertion that Hynes "signed off on every single state check" over the past 12 years (which is technically his job).   

What's most notable, however, is that the Hynes camp hasn't argued with the ad's central message: that the comptroller was AWOL during the crucial budget debate earlier this year.  Instead, the "Reality Check" (PDF) document released by the campaign over the weekend tried to refocus the debate on the Blagojevich years.

Monday, November 2
The Quinn campaign started the day by calling for a truce and a return to "issue-based principles," rather than negative ads. From their statement:

Dan Hynes made the decision last month to run a negative campaign based on misleading voters about the Governor’s decades-long record of fighting for tax fairness and tax relief for working families. He can make another decision today to end this negative approach. Upon his pledge to pull his latest attack ad, we will pull our response ad from the air and will devote all future TV advertising to Governor Quinn’s record and his plans for moving Illinois forward.

That is today’s choice: Dan Hynes can continue down the negative TV campaign path that he started, or he can join Governor Quinn is restoring this campaign to the informative, issues-based principles that Democratic primary voters deserve.

The response from Hynes spokesman Matt McGrath:

Two days after launching an embarrassingly absurd attack ad that continues to draw derision from outside observers, the Quinn campaign wants a way out. No thanks. We will continue to run our campaign based on a discussion of the central issue facing the state of Illinois and its future – the budget crisis. Pat Quinn is free to continue talking about haircuts.

Tuesday, November 2
The fun continued yesterday, with another back-and-forth over Quinn's trip to D.C. to meet with the Illinois congressional delegation and attend a fundraiser.

Meanwhile, on WTTW's Chicago Tonight, a panel of local journalists discussed the gubernatorial race.  Here's an interesting excerpt (full video here) in which WGN's Paul Lisnek whacks Illinois Republicans for their "murky" budget solutions:

Note Abdon Pallasch's opinion that "so far" neither Quinn nor Hynes have exhibited "the political skills" to pass their respective tax plans. Indeed, as we've said before, the question at the center of this primary race is which candidate can actually push a budget solution through the Springfield morass. Because his plan to institute a progressive income tax structure requires so many more steps, Hynes simply has more to prove on this point.

Finally, here is a video published by the Quinn campaign today chronicling the governor's nine-city tour of the state last month: