The airwaves are being flooded with a series of negative ads for both Senate hopefuls: Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk.
The so-called major party Senate candidates and their supporters are slinging the televised campaign mud.
The Green and Libertarian Party contenders don't have the cash for TV ads. The currently airing political ads that took a cartoonish turn this week.
One of the latest negative ads compares voting for Giannoulias to driving drunk, at the end of the ad saying, "friends don't let friends vote Alexi". The group American Crossroads is responsible for that ad.
American Crossroads was founded by Karl Rove, former President George W. Bush's political guru. The group is helping republican Congressman Mark Kirk against Giannoulias.
"Of course, he's gonna put up characters and cartoons because he can't talk about his own record in Washington, D.C.," said Giannoulias. "He voted against a small business, a jobs bill yesterday... a vote that is inexplicable, so when he gets a chance for Karl Rove to put millions of dollars on TV, he does a cartoon about the way I drive."
A Kirk spokeswoman denied an ABC7 request for an interview with the congressman. She emailed a statement reading in part: "Mark Kirk will continue contrasting his vision of spending less, taxing less and borrowing less to put Illinois back to work."
Meanwhile, Giannoulias continues airing negative ads about Kirk, accusing the congressman of hyperbolizing and outright fabrication.
Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones says the Republican and the Democrat are proving they are not qualified to be senator.
"The number one responsibility of government is not to run commercials," said Jones. "It's to create civility, and we have not heard that."
Libertarian candidate Mike Labno says Giannoulias and Kirk ads should address protecting unborn life and gun ownership, reducing federal spending and the size and power of the federal government.
"We've seen throughout history that when government gets involved in everything, prices go up and service quality begins to go down," said Labno. "It's time for that to change."
Labno, Jones, Kirk and Giannoulias will all be listed on the November 2nd ballot.
At this rate, counting the outside money, the total cost of this race will definitely run into the tens of millions of dollars.
