* Tribune…

“We will continue to highlight Pritzker’s ties to both Rod Blagojevich and Mike Madigan until he makes a final decision concerning a run for the Democratic nomination for governor,” said Aaron DeGroot, a state GOP spokesman. He said the robocall was being made to “Democratic donors, Democratic elected officials and Democratic Party activists.”

Christopher Mooney, director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois, said the state GOP’s effort — and the depth to its early opposition research — may represent a pre-emptive strike to Pritzker and other Democrats considering a challenge to Rauner.

“This could be an attempt at a chilling effect for people to read between the lines and see how much money they have and how willing they are to go negative so early,” Mooney said. […]

“Normal rules would say it’s a big waste of money, coming during the holidays, with fatigue from the last election, with it coming so far in advance of the next election,” Mooney said. “But it’s only a waste of money if money matters to you. Even if they get a little bit of benefit out it, maybe it’s worth it because they don’t care about the money.”

Meh. That Blagojevich-related oppo was all basically just based on Google [and LexisNexis] searches. The real stuff isn’t out there yet.

And making a few hundred, or even a few thousand robocalls costs almost nothing. Something like 2 cents per call.

But he’s right that Team Rauner is signaling that it’s more than willing to go negative extremely early. This is unheard of stuff here, campers. [ADDING: From Wordslinger in comments: The dark-money negative spots started on Aaron Schock in January 2013] And we’re in for two solid years of it no matter who gets in. Other potential candidates are surely paying attention.

* Sun-Times…

Many are questioning the unusual timing of the attacks — prior to official announcements to run. Democratic political strategist Pete Giangreco said links to Blagojevich by the party didn’t work in Democrat Tammy Duckworth’s successful run for Republican Mark Kirk’s U.S. Senate seat.

“I frankly think the Republicans are scared to death of J.B. Pritzker, and I think that they made up this fake narrative with Blagojevich because that’s what they do whenever they can’t beat somebody,” Giangreco said. “They tried the Blagojevich attacks on Tammy Duckworth, and she beat Mark Kirk by the largest margin that any incumbent senator has been beat by in Illinois since World War II. So if they want to keep talking about Blagojevich, keep going because we’ll keep beating them by record margins.”

The Republicans also targeted Democrat Chris Kennedy last week, criticizing his contributions to a super PAC to support Illinois House Democrats in their November campaigns. Kennedy, former chairman of the University of Illinois board of trustees and son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is also considering a run for governor.

An advisor to Kennedy called the attacks on both Kennedy and Pritzker a distraction from the GOP’s record.

“It’s telling that the Illinois Republican Party and Bruce Rauner are going to be afraid to run on their record of having decimated our state,” the advisor said. “I think that is telling as to why they’re engaging in this kind of back and forth and digging things up. I think they should focus on their record at the end of the day, not talking about something that happened 10 years ago. Give me a break.”

Mark Kirk basically ran out of money and was running in a state that went overwhelmingly Democratic. Not a great comparison for 2018. Neither of those guys will be short on cash and the 2018 turnout will be different, although it’s not yet certain how different. If it’s another 2006 (the last Republican presidential midterm), Rauner better watch out. If it’s more like 2002, he’s got a good shot.