The Hill is reporting that Bill Daley--former Commerce Secretary and brother of Chicago mayor Richard Daley--is leaning toward running for Roland Burris's Senate seat in 2010. This is interesting for any number of reasons, but one of them is what it does to Illinois state Treasurer Illinois Alexi Giannoulias, who's also leaning toward running. Both Giannoulias and Daley are tight with Obama: Giannoulias frequently played hoops with Obama; Daley played a prominent role on Obama's transition team. My guess is Obama would have publicly stayed neutral in the 2010 race no matter what, but now he might be hard-pressed to even express a preference behind-the-scenes.
Making matters even more interesting, The Hill article says that, if Daley runs, he'll have the help of Larry Grisolano, who was one of Obama's media gurus in '08 and, after the campaign, joined David Axelrod's old consulting firm. Giannoulias's media consultant is Eric Adelstein, who, according to Obama biographer David Mendell, famously told Obama not long after 9/11 that his name would prove too big an obstacle to win the 2004 Senate campaign and that he shouldn't run.
--Jason Zengerle