Lots of action among the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate these past few days.

Alexi Giannoulias has received the endorsement of Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Illinois Reps. Phil Hare, Mike Quigley, and Bill Foster previously announced their support).  In a statement yesterday, Gutierrez said the Giannoulias "consistently fights for the middle class, represents people over special interests and will move our country forward by empowering working families."  In turn, Giannoulias praised the Chicago congressman's vote against a ten-year-old piece of legislation that ultimately paved the way for the financial crisis:

Giannoulias said he agreed with Gutierrez's vote against the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 that allowed investment banks, commercial banks and insurance firms to create institutions that were "too big to fail" and mix government-insured savings with risky investments.

"Financial deregulation in Washington and pure greed on Wall Street led to the collapse of our financial system," Giannoulais said. "Congressman Gutierrez had the common sense to vote against deregulation. Now we hope to work together in Congress to fix what's wrong with our financial sector, restore accountability and oversight to the industry and prevent these speculative binges and high-wire gambles so taxpayers aren't left footing the bill."

On Friday, David Hoffman rolled out his economic plan.  But that news got overshadowed by his baseless claim that Giannoulias broke a campaign pledge not to accept corporate PAC money by taking $500 from the Community Bankers Association.  In fact, as the Tribune pointed out, the Giannoulias campaign never cashed the check, opting to return it instead. 

Yesterday, the Giannoulias campaign said that Hoffman "owes Alexi an apology."  This morning, they got their wish:

On Sunday, Michael Powell, Hoffman’s campaign manager, issued an apology to Tom Bowen, Giannoulias’s campaign manager —- but also used it to ask for a series of debates.

“It was an honest mistake, but a mistake nonetheless,” Powell wrote. “For that, we apologize to the Giannoulias campaign. We believe there should be a vigorous debate in this campaign, but it should always be based on an honest discussion of the facts and an accurate airing of our differences.”

The Hoffman campaign went on to invite Giannoulias to agree to five public debates before primary day (February 2).

Meanwhile, here is a summary of Hoffman's economic plan, which includes the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency and the passage of a national interest rate cap:

A more detailed rundown of the various proposals is available on his website.

Giannoulias has so far announced the two components of his five-part economic plan.  The campaign expects to roll out the rest in the coming weeks.

Finally, as we noted earlier, both Cheryle Jackson and Giannoulias spoke out over the weekend in opposition to the abortion restrictions included in the House health care reform bill.