Their exchange ended with smiles, but Democratic U.S. Senate candidates made clear last night that the fight for Barack Obama's old seat is going to heat up and narrow down in the final primary stretch.
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman and Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson answered a rapid-fire set of questions from the Chicago Sun-Times' Carol Marin yesterday evening.
In their second, and milder, widely televised forum, the three leading Democrats broke little new ground in revealing their policy positions. They also rehashed some of the same arguments they have previously made about each others' personal characters and experiences.
WTTW, which hosted the forum, excluded candidates Jacob Meister and Robert Marshall from the event — a move Meister formally protested this afternoon. Marin said invitations were based on editorial judgment and results of a December poll in the Chicago Tribune.
The producers at WTTW also took care to distinguish the exchange from a "debate." The candidates were not given exactly the same amount of time to speak, and some were asked questions that others were not.
Perhaps that was why it became extra clear that, while Jackson has stayed above the sniping between Giannoulias and Hoffman, she is likely to become a diminishing factor in the race.
At one point, when it was Jackson's turn to speak and Hoffman wanted to rebut a statement from Giannoulias, she went so far as to yield the floor, inviting Hoffman to "rebut away."
Later, when the candidates were asked how each would commend another, Jackson slipped on her answer, asking if Marin meant "once" either Hoffman or Giannoulias became the Democratic nominee. She quickly corrected herself and said "if."
That "if" has become a near certainty, and the figures in campaign-finance documents filed yesterday will further sideline Jackson. Giannoulias and Hoffman, rich with contributions, will enter the last week and a half of primary campaigning with a clear sense of their rivalry.
In terms of policy, little will separate the candidates at this stage of the game.
Both are well-established liberals on the social front, favoring gay marriage and protection of abortion rights.
On foreign policy, both side with Israel more than Palestine in Middle Eastern affairs, and both favor some form of sanctions against Iran. Their positions on Afghanistan differ in terms of the troop surge — Giannoulias defends it while Hoffman demurs — but they both support the ongoing military mission there.
And on domestic affairs, the candidates are also similar. For example, they support the national health-care bill, despite its compromised status.
So this race will likely come down to personality, experience and name recognition.
In Hoffman, voters have a talented investigator and prosecutor with Washington credentials as a U.S. Senate staffer, U.S. attorney and Supreme Court justice clerk. But he lacks exposure throughout Illinois, a reality that could lead to struggles against the longtime Congressman Mark Kirk, should he become the Republican nominee.
In Giannoulias, they have a technology-minded and media-savvy financial caretaker who helped put the state's inventory on eBay, among other things. But he faces serious questions about his ability to steward public, and private, investments, and his family bank's ties to questionable characters would haunt him in the general election.
Will Illinois voters pick the newer face, despite less familiarity with Hoffman, or will they go with Giannoulias, a telegenic and likeable character with some image problems?
The answer is near, and your projections are welcome in the comments section. For more on the forum, check out my Twitter feed below.