Bill Daley is running for governor of Illinois, challenging incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn in the primary.

It wasn’t that long ago, April 2009, that another Daley — Bill’s brother Richard, then the mayor of Chicago — was telling us that Quinn was doing just fine:

Mayor Daley on Thursday all but endorsed Pat Quinn in 2010, arguing that the accidental governor has done “a very good job so far” and has the heart, soul and passion for the office he inherited when the now-indicted Rod Blagojevich was ousted.

The mayor’s brother, former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, took a pass on the governor’s race, arguing Quinn was a good guy and that it was incumbent on Democrats to give their new governor a chance to tackle a financial crisis he did not create.

On Thursday, Mayor Daley went further than that.

He said Quinn has “done a very good job so far” and is definitely “electable,”

That primary is going to be the political equivalent of “Game of Thrones.”

Speaking of competitive Democratic primaries of 2014, looks like we’ll be seeing one in Illinois, where no one can defend the performance of incumbent Pat Quinn:

Sen. Dick Durbin told me Tuesday that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is “seriously thinking” about running for governor.

I talked to Madigan about a gubernatorial bid on Saturday night — she was here for President Barack Obama’s Inauguration festivities — and my takeaway from the conversation is she wants to run whether or not Bill Daley also gets in a Democratic primary to challenge Gov. Pat Quinn.

The main consequence of Madigan, 46, inching toward a bid is this: We now know the politically vulnerable Quinn is heading toward a colossal primary fight because he is going to be facing strong opponents, either Madigan, Daley or both in the March 18, 2014, balloting.

How unpopular is Quinn?

With a 64 percent disapproval rating, Quinn is the most unpopular governor PPP has polled in the country this year. Only 25 percent of those polled were satisfied with Quinn’s performance. Quinn’s disapproval ratings among Democrats are more telling: 43 percent of Democrats who took the survey disapproved of him.