The list of contenders for Chicago's mayoral race is getting smaller. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced his decision not to run last week and over the weekend news broke that Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd Ward) is considering dropping his bid due to health concerns. That mini-trend makes Sun-Times scribe Carol Marin's column yesterday all the more intriguing. Marin predicts that if Gov. Pat Quinn is elected governor tomorrow, Madigan, the state's popular attorney general, will declare herself a candidate for Chicago's top job:

My money says [Madigan] runs for mayor if Quinn wins. And in so doing, she puts some real speed bumps in the road for Rahm Emanuel, who these days is roaring down Michigan Avenue like General Patton in a tank, picking off potential opponents.

Conversely, a Bill Brady victory tomorrow could set Madigan up for a gubernatorial bid in 2014. "And no matter if [Brady] does well or poorly, the hard decisions he must make won't win him much love," Marin writes. "And Madigan, with an already huge war chest, would be perfectly positioned to go after the top job."

The Madigan for mayor talk has been swirling for some time. Earlier this month, she told WBEZ her "goal is to serve as your attorney general" and insisted to Marin her "intention" is to continue in her present positions. But goals and intentions do indeed change. Note that Madigan is taking a look at an issue that Chicago's next mayor will have to deal with one way or another -- the Daley administration's widely reviled privatization of the city's parking meter system. Her office has issued subpeonas to Chicago Parking Meters LLC and some of the other private companies that now control the meter system. That investigation is ongoing.