A poll released today by Public Policy Polling shows a dead heat between Democratic gubernatorial challenger Dan Hynes and incumbent Pat Quinn.  Here are the toplines from the survey, which was conducted between January 22 and January 25:

Hynes: 41%
Quinn: 40%
Undecided: 19%

This is the first poll conducted since the Hynes campaign released their controversial ad featuring 1987 footage of former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington criticizing Quinn.  No surprisingly, the survey found Hynes with a seven-point advantage among African-American voters.  Meanwhile, Quinn edges him out by eight points among Hispanics and the two candidates are tied among whites.

The PPP poll also tested the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.  Here are the results:

Alexi Giannoulias: 32%
David Hoffman: 20%
Cheryle Jackson: 18%
Undecided: 27%

That's the highest level of support we've seen for Hoffman in any poll to date.  It also tracks pretty well with the Tribune poll released over the weekend. 

You can peruse the full PPP polling memo below:

PPP IL-Gov poll (1.26.09) -