Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic nominee JB Pritzker stuck to their now-familiar campaign scripts, trading charges and insults at the first gubernatorial debate.

Illinois’ massive pension debt was central to debate Wednesday as Comptroller Susana Mendoza sparred with Republican challenger and former Naperville State Rep. Darlene Senger and Libertarian candidate Claire Ball at the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsement forum.

Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic challenger JB Pritzker will face each other for the first time in a formal debate setting Thursday night, but the men will also be joined by two third-party candidates at the NBC-5/Telemundo Chicago forum. Meanwhile, one of those third-party candidates, State Sen. Sam McCann (C-Plainview) has put out three new ads, but has no immediate plans to air the ads on TV or online.

Lawyers for a former member of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board told the Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday that Gov. Bruce Rauner was constitutionally out-of-bounds when he fired Eric Gregg from the board in late 2015.

Republican Attorney General candidate Erika Harold on Tuesday told the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board that she supports legalizing recreational marijuana, completing an evolution of her stance from totally opposed when she last ran for office in 2014, to being open to “exploring” the issue earlier this year. Meanwhile, as Gov. Bruce Rauner was endorsed by state business leaders yesterday, Democrat JB Pritzker hit him on the alleged zeroing out of a job training program. But business leaders dispute that claim.

Illinois is one of 17 states not prepared at all to weather even a moderate recession — much less a severe economic downturn – according to an analysis released Monday by Moody’s Analytics.

The analysis, released a decade after the Great Recession, is designed to estimate “the amount of fiscal stress likely to be applied to state budgets under different recession scenarios and comparing that stress to the amount of money states have set aside in reserve.”

Twenty-three states have the amount of cash on hand they would need to weather a moderate recession without having to raise taxes or cut spending, and another 10 have most of what they need to survive a downturn.

However, 17 states — including Illinois — are “significantly unprepared for even a small downturn. This will result in some painful decision-making in those states in the next few years and will undoubtedly hold certain states back in terms of economic performance relative to their peers.”

Moody’s estimates a typical state would need to have approximately 11 percent of its general fund revenues put into a reserve fund to weather the next recession without having to raise taxes or cut spending.

To survive a larger downturn akin to the Great Recession without raising taxes or cutting spending, a typical state would need almost 18 percent in reserve, according to the analysis.

Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Montana, Kansas and Illinois are the five states that have nothing in a rainy-day fund, the analysis says.

A moderate recession could have a fiscal shock on Illinois budget of $4.1 billion. Tax revenues would drop an estimated 9.3 percent and Medicare spending would rise 2 percent, according to the analysis, while a severe recession could have a fiscal shock totaling $6.8 billion, as tax revenues drop 16.2 percent and Medicare spending rises 2.7 percent.

Even in a moderate recession, Illinois would face “significant stress” on its ability to make required payments to its pension funds, which are already notably underfunded.

“Illinois and Kentucky would incur the largest effects because of their already-sizable pension debts and large baseline [actuarially-defined contributions] as a share of their overall budget,” the report says. “This further underlines how important preparing for economic downturns can be, not only in terms of the near-term economic impact but also because of the long-term structural damage that can be done relying on one-time accounting measures.”

A Chicago based pro-choice group reported approximately $400,000 in contributions between Sept. 10-14, according to state records — ensuring that the hot-button issue of abortion is front-and-center in the last seven weeks of the campaign.

Acknowledging that he is a “better governor” now than when he took office nearly four years ago, Gov. Bruce Rauner asked voters to allow him to “continue the hard work of reform” and avoid “returning to the status quo.”

Illinois health officials must figure out why African American mothers and babies are significantly more likely to die soon after birth than white mothers, State Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, said Wednesday.

With Election Day less than two months away, Gov. Bruce Rauner will deliver a speech Thursday in Chicago designed to launch his re-election campaign into the home stretch.