Early voting has begun in the 5th Congressional District and the primary is just over two weeks away.  Other outlets have been reporting on the first round of 48-hour campaign finance filings, and we'll have more on that tomorrow.  In the meantime, we're going to take a look at some of the new literature hitting doorsteps in the 5th District. 

Most notable is the latest mailer from Mike Quigley, which is the first example of paid media from a top tier IL-5 candidate that includes some negative messaging -- in this case, directed at Sara Feigenholtz and John Fritchey.  Specifically, it hits the two state representatives for their support of last year's CTA bailout bill, which included a .25% sales tax hike in Chicago.  Click on the third page to view that section:

At the Access Living forum today, Fritchey responded to the piece: "All of us say we don't want the CTA to get shut down.  Yet two or three days ago, Mike Quigley puts out a mail piece that attacks me for my vote supporting the mass transit and CTA bailout piece.  This isn't about politics, it's about getting people to and from work, to and from their homes, and to and from their places they need to go."

Speaking of Fritchey, check out his first mail piece (click button in upper right corner to expand):

As you can see on the final page, he includes several blurbs from local news outlets, including this line from the Sun-Times: "If all Democratic candidates were as competent as North Side Democrat Rep. John Fritchey, endorsements would be a slam dunk."  What the mailer doesn't tell readers it that the above passage came from their 2006 endorsement of Fritchey for state representative.  Ironically, just as this piece was arriving in 5th district mailboxes this weekend, the Sun-Times chose to endorse Quigley in the race and also commended Feigenholtz, Tom Geoghegan, and Charlie Wheelan.  As the Huffington Post Chicago pointed out: "Conspicuously unmentioned was State Rep. John Fritchey."

The Sun-Times' Mark Brown also took a whack at Fritchey in his column today with regards to the House impeachment committee's handling of Roland Burris' testimony last month:

At least Republicans were asking tough questions. Democrats on the committee made it their business that day to protect Burris. A certain Chicago Democrat who would like to be a congressman and was a leader in the effort to impeach Blagojevich made it plain that day he didn't want the impeachment panel investigating Burris, raising numerous objections to the Republican line of questioning.

In this transcript, you can see Fritchey interrupting GOP Rep. Jim Durkin.  Judge for yourself if you think it warrants Brown's criticism. 

Finally, here's a third mailer, this one from Geoghegan, which plays off the title of his first book (apologies for the off-color scan):

Geoghegan was also interviewed by Prairie State Blue recently and you can watch the full video here.

More to come tomorrow ...

UPDATE: Here's the second mailer sent out by the Geoghegan campaign:

Full disclosure: The SEIU Illinois Council -- which is the sole sponsor of Progress Illinois -- has endorsed Sara Feigenholtz in the 5th Congressional District race.  Progress Illinois itself will not be endorsing any candidate in this contest.