[Comments opened and post bumped up from Saturday for visibility.]

* The Tribune finally catches up to a Pat Quinn campaign story that subscribers have known about since Wednesday…

Quinn’s political circle is small and lately, unstable. Quinn recently parted ways with his longtime political consulting firm, AKPD Message & Media. Last week, Quinn dropped pollster Anzalone Liszt Research Inc.

Actually, Quinn’s campaign didn’t say that it “dropped” the polling firm. It quit. Imagine having to start all over with a new pollster this close to an election. Unreal.

* Meanwhile, time is fast running out for politicians to make their case on TV without all the other clutter, if it hasn’t expired already. The Tribune reports that $3 million was spent on campaign TV ads this past week in Chicago, and claims the total could reach $7 million a week by the end of it all. Here’s the Chicago media market breakdown…

* Alexi Giannoulias: $500,00 from campaign, and $200,000 more from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

* Mark Kirk: $363,000 from his campaign, and another $360,000 from Karl Rove’s American Crossroads

* Gov. Pat Quinn: $450,000

* Bill Brady: $240,000

* Scott Lee Cohen: $100,000

* Debbie Halvorson: $334,000

* Bill Foster: $200,000

Keep in mind that the statewides are also spending money Downstate in varying degrees.

* ABC7 also did a story about the new TV ads…

* And here’s a Rasmussen poll that I forgot to post [Friday]…

One-in-five Illinois voters (22%) consider themselves to be a part of the Tea Party movement. This is slightly lower than involvement nationally.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds that 63% do not associate themselves with the Tea Party, and 15% are not sure whether their views are in line with the movement.

Forty-five percent (45%) of voters in the state think the Tea Party is good for the country, which is right in line with national sentiments. Twenty-nine percent (29%) disagree and say it is bad for the country, while 14% feel it is neither good nor bad. Another 12% are not sure what kind of impact the Tea Party movement has on the country. […]

Forty-one percent (41%) of Republicans consider themselves Tea Party members, while 10% of Democrats and 21% of voters not affiliated with either major political party do the same.

Similarly, a solid majority of GOP voters and unaffiliateds feel the Tea Party movement is good for the country, while a plurality of Democrats disagree.

* Toplines…

* Do you consider yourself part of the Tea Party Movement?

22% Yes
63% No
15% Not sure

* Is The Tea Party movement good for the country or bad for the country?

45% Good
29% Bad
14% Neither
12% Not sure