* David Hoffman has finally aired his long-promised attack ad. The spot whacks Alexi Giannoulias on Tony Rezko and touts Hoffman’s newspaper endorsements. Rate it…

Um, the Giannoulias family bank didn’t “let” Rezko bounce a half-million dollars in checks. The bank didn’t honor the checks and the casinos got quite upset about it.

* Erick Erickson, the top dog over at RedState, is dreaming…

Conservatives across the country are seriously considering a last minute air-drop of support into Illinois for Pat Hughes. The thinking goes that the last minute effort to help Scott Brown put him over the finish line and the same could be done in these last eleven days before the Illinois GOP primary. […]

He is not polling well against Kirk right now, but then he has significantly lower name identification. All the polling suggests Kirk’s support is very week and once people find out about Hughes, they break overwhelmingly for Hughes.

Scott Brown was a pretty well-known commodity by the last week and was either leading or coming very close to it by this point in the MA Senate campaign. And even if Hughes’ new poll is right - and that’s seriously doubtful considering that nobody even knows who his pollster is - he’s still trailing by 20 points. That’s a lot to overcome in a week - and that assumes the incoming cash is immediate. The Trib poll is probably more accurate anyway.

* Republican Lt. Governor candidate Jason Plummer, who has raised $731,000 this month alone in cash and (mostly) loans, has a new TV ad. Rate it…

* Related…

* Recommendations in Illinois Senate and governor primaries.

* Hoffman, Kirk best for Senate

* GOP salivating for U.S. Senate seat

* Brown’s win shows Republicans how to seize Obama’s old Illinois Senate seat

* Giannoulias, Hoffman report on fund-raising efforts

* Up close and personal with Dem Senate candidates

* Democratic Endorsement: U.S. Senate - Hoffman

* Republican Endorsement: U.S. Senate - Kirk