Anyone not living under a rock knows that with a few rare exceptions, Mayor Richard M. Daley's word is law in Chicago (Chicago Children's Museum anyone?). And if that's not enough, his brother John holds Cook County's purse strings as Chairman of the county board's finance committee.

But could their younger brother Bill be in line to head state government? Word is he's considering a run for governor in 2010. With federal prosecutors probing every one of Governor Rod Blagojevich's pores, to say he's a long shot for reelection is to state the obvious.

Bill, the youngest of Mayor Richard J. Daley's children, served as U.S. Commerce Secretary in the second Clinton administration and is now Midwest Chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase, something that wouldn't hurt in the fundraising department.

Bill Daley is currently an ad hoc advisor and fundraiser for presidential hopeful Barack Obama's campaign. He's also regarded as one of the few whose advice the mayor actually heeds.

Still the pool of potential 2010 Democratic hopefuls is growing. There's Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who could rely on the muscle of the state Democratic party headed by her father, House Speaker Mike Madigan. There's the up and coming State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias; State Comptroller Dan Hynes; Lt. Governor Pat Quinn; and State Rep. Julie (transit funding) Hamos, just to name a few.

A Bill Daley gubernatorial candidacy would likely (as it did when he flirted with the idea for 2002 cycle) inflame sensitive nerves and reopen the old resentments of many over the unchecked political power of the Daley family.

And that brings me to this question. Would a Daley in the governor's mansion equal too much power concentrated in one generation of one family?

Let me know what you think.