John Kass of the Chicago Tribune wrote a terrific column yesterday about Governor Rod Blagojevich's transformation from human to pinata:

Rod is suspended from a string, swinging foolishly, and deservedly so. He said he'd end "business as usual" and hasn't, and so a crowd of thwackers has formed around him. They reach for the broomstick, eager to swing until he opens and spills.

And underneath it all is Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka. She's trailing but she's got to be hopping up and down, clapping, hoping the candy will fall into her lap before Election Day.

Kass has it right. A new small-sample poll released this morning by the Chicago Sun-Times has Topinka down 30, which is a much larger deficit than other recent polls show. Still, the latest RCP Average shows Topinka trailing Blagojevich by 15.5% and she's also badly outmatched in the money race. With only 50 days before the vote, Topinka is almost certainly going to need a silver bullet from prosecutors pursuing ongoing investigations of the Blagojevich administration to pull this race out.

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