Two weeks exactly until primary day in the 5th District.  Here's the latest news ...

John Fritchey is on the air with his new TV ad, which is surprisingly negative for the first spot of a campaign.  It depicts Sara Feigenholtz and Mike Quigley as squabbling youngsters and ends with this line: "As Barack Obama said, it's time to put aside childish things."  Watch it:

After watching the ad, Capitol Fax points out that the attack Lil' Quigley is leveling against Lil' Feigenholtz -- that she appeared on the so-called "clout lists" of former Govs. George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich -- actually originates with the Fritchey campaign.  So depicting himself above the fray is a bit silly.  

The 48-hour filings are streaming in (for contributions over $1,000), so we've created the following table, which is woefully incomplete due to the fact we don't have the candidates pre-primary filings yet.  We'll be adding those numbers later this week and continually updating this data between now and primary day:

Notable recent contributors include J.B Pritzker (donated $2,400 to Feigenholtz), Ald. Tom Tunney (donated $1,000 to Quigley, but don't be surprised if he does the same for Feigenholtz), and writer Barbara Ehrenreich (donated $1,000 to Tom Geoghegan).  Meanwhile, candidate Victor Forys reported loaning $45,000 to his campaign yesterday, on top of the $100,000 in personal funds he poured in before the end of the last year.  

As The Hill noted yesterday, Feigenholtz's haul in the last few days clearly puts her at the front of the pack in terms of fundraising.  And in an email to supporters today, she used the recent attacks from Fritchey and Quigley to try to build on that momentum:

I have some sad but predictable news.

Some of my so-called reform-minded opponents have turned to old-school political tricks in this election.  Rather than discuss the biggest challenges our nation faces in a generation - a stalled economy and a crumbling health care system - my opponents are content to resort to Karl Rove-style mud slinging.

I need your help to fight back against my opponents' negative attacks.  Please contribute $150 today to allow me to fight back.

Finally, Geoghegan's appearance on Public Affairs is now online: 

Full disclosure: The SEIU Illinois Council -- which is the sole sponsor of Progress Illinois -- has endorsed Sara Feigenholtz in the 5th Congressional District race.  Progress Illinois itself will not be endorsing any candidate in this contest.