Here’s my last primary column.

Alexi Giannoulias has big trouble ahead.

The wealthy, young, telegenic Democratic candidate for treasurer is favored to win Tuesday’s primary. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama appears in his TV ad, and the latest Chicago Tribune poll shows Giannoulias leading downstater Paul Mangieri by 14 points.

Giannoulias has repeatedly claimed that his experience working at his family’s bank makes him qualified to be state treasurer, but late questions have arisen about some loans the bank made to an ex-mobster, and the candidate’s response has cast doubt on whether Giannoulias is ready — or even fit — to hold statewide office.

Mark Brown’s last column is pretty good.

Not that long ago, state legislators Tony Munoz, Eddie Acevedo and Martin Sandoval were Exhibit A for the growing influence of the Hispanic Democratic Organization, proud beneficiaries of its Machine-style, jobs-for-votes politics.

Then came the Hired Truck scandal, and its offshoot, the City Hall patronage hiring investigation, both of which have prominently featured HDO.

Now those three legislators are running for re-election Tuesday and, wouldn’t you know it, you don’t hear much from any of them about HDO.

Instead, all three are campaigning on the theme of being an “independent voice” in their Southwest Side communities, the word “independent” featured so prominently in all their campaign literature that you’d swear it was produced in a secret echo chamber located somewhere beneath Pilsen and Little Village.

And so is Lynn Sweet’s.

GOP House hopefuls Kathy Salvi and David McSweeney are the front-runners in Tuesday’s primary battle to take on Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean. They are fighting for conservative votes in expensive Chicago TV spots where the non-federal issue of property taxes suddenly came into play in the closing days of the campaign.

“It’s nuclear negative,” said McSweeney on Sunday, forced to change his end-game strategy by Salvi’s last minute television and direct mail blitz attacking his tenure as a Palatine Township trustee.