It's official: While earlier surveys gave him a healthy margin, polls now show Pat Quinn leading challenger Dan Hynes by only single digits in the Democratic primary for governor.  As such, both campaigns are stepping up their television attacks.  Yesterday, the Hynes campaign released this 15-second spot blasting Quinn's early release program:

In turn, the Quinn campaign came out with an ad tying Hynes to the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal (an issue they had stayed away from until this week):

With 12 days of campaigning left, both candidates have a substantial amount left in their respective warchests.  But Hynes has a significant advantage.

According to campaign finance disclosures filed yesterday, Quinn outraised Hynes during the final six months of 2009 and ended the year with $1.5 million cash on hand.  In the first 20 days of January, he has also disclosed over $650,000 in contributions exceeding $500.  Hynes, meanwhile, ended 2009 with $3.1 million cash on hand and has so far received over $200,000 in January contributions exceeding $500.

In short: Hynes has an additional $1 million to spend on attack ads during the home stretch.  Adding insult to injury, GOP candidate Andy McKenna's ad lambasting the governor's income tax proposal will be running across the state during this period as well.  

UPDATE (12:15 p.m.): In addition to the early release and McKenna spots, Quinn now has another attack ad running against him.  This one is also from Hynes and features archival video of then-Chicago Mayor Harold Washington criticizing Quinn's performance as city revenue director.  We'll post video when it becomes available.

UPDATE II (1:10 p.m.): Here's the Hynes ad featuring archival footage of Harold Washington calling Quinn a "totally and completely undisciplined individual":

While that's an impressive piece of opposition research, it's also worth noting that Tom Hynes -- father of Dan and former Cook County assessor and State Senate president -- was no friend of Harold Washington's, as commenter "Richard" notes below.

Here's Quinn's reaction to the ad, via NBC 5:

Quinn denies Washington fired him.

"That didn't happen -- I resigned. I supported Harold Washington in every election. He told me sometime Quinn, someday we'll have a drink together."

UPDATE III (2:25 p.m.): The Tribune has a separate reaction from the Quinn campaign, in which they bring up Tom Hynes' contentious relationship with Washington:

Quinn's campaign shot back that the ad is in poor taste coming from Hynes, alleging that the comptroller's father, 19th Ward power broker Tom Hynes undermined Washington. The elder Hynes ran as a third-party candidate against Washington in his 1987 re-election campaign at a time when racial tensions ran high in Chicago politics

"Harold Washington is spinning in his grave," said Quinn spokeswoman Elizabeth Austin. "Dan Hynes was featured in ads for his father against Harold Washington."

UPDATE IV (2:50 p.m.):  Here's the full Quinn response:

The late, great Mayor Harold Washington is spinning in his grave today.

It is outrageous that Dan Hynes is now invoking the name of Mayor Harold Washington in a blatant maneuver to mislead voters. That Dan Hynes would use a 24 year-old news clip of a beloved figure to attack Governor Quinn shows there is no limit to his negative campaigning.  There also is no limit to his hypocrisy.

As African-Americans, reformers and progressives all remember well, Machine politician Tom Hynes left the Democratic Party in 1987 to run against Mayor Washington’s re-election, in a failed effort to unseat Chicago’s first black mayor.  Now, Tom’s son is using Mayor Washington to try to win an election. 

Let us set the record straight: In 1983, Pat Quinn was the only Cook County elected official to stand with Harold Washington against the forces of the Democratic machine and its leaders – include Assessor Tom Hynes. And let us remember, at that time, Pat Quinn’s principled stand with Harold Washington was considered political suicide by the powers that be.

In 1987, Pat Quinn stood proudly with Mayor Harold Washington – both before the 1987 Democratic primary, when Harold Washington beat Hynes fair and square, and then afterward, when Mayor Washington faced down the Hynes family and their renegade bid to unseat him.

During the Hynes family’s revolt against Democratic voters and their incumbent mayoral nominee, Dan Hynes joined his father in television ads targeting Harold Washington – whose election as Mayor of the City of Chicago had changed history.

It is true that Mayor Washington hired Pat Quinn to clean up the City of Chicago’s revenue department. It also is true that, after eight months, Pat Quinn handed in his resignation. News reports at the time suggested that Pat Quinn’s gritty personal integrity might have put him at odds with some political insiders at City Hall.

It also is true, as anyone who remembers those days in Chicago will attest, that Mayor Washington was known, and loved, for his occasional intemperate outbursts.

In the video clip presented by Comptroller Hynes, “Mayor Harold Washington addressed issues that were getting public attention in his own inimitable way,” says Jacky Grimshaw, who was director of Mayor Washington’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs at that time and served as his 1987 campaign manager. “Pat Quinn was with Harold Washington from the start, long before it was the politically popular thing to do. This episode in no way decreased the friendship and regard that Harold had for Pat Quinn.”

We firmly believe that, if Mayor Washington were with us today, we would have his support against the son of a 19th ward boss who grew up in Chicago’s old-time political machine.

We expect the African-American community, and all who revered Mayor Washington and everything he stood for, to reject Hynes’ appalling tactics.  And we are confident that the voters of Illinois will reject his campaign of distortion and character assassination.  Illinois can do better.

Full Disclosure: The SEIU Illinois State Council, which sponsors this website, has endorsed Pat Quinn in the Democratic primary for governor.