Chicago ? In a city where federal prosecutors have made careers out of prosecuting political corruption, the indictment of Gov. George Ryan’s campaign committee as a criminal enterprise breaks new ground.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says it is only the third time a political campaign has faced federal charges, after Richard Nixon’s 1972 presidential campaign and organizations tied to Lyndon LaRouche’s 1984 bid for president.

Yet much of what Ryan’s committee is accused of doing  using state employees to do political work, rewarding loyal campaigners with raises and promotions  has been a quietly accepted tradition of Illinois politics.

“It should be a wake-up call to everybody that they should be doing everything on the up and up,” said Pat Quinn, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in this year’s election. “I think that it certainly makes everyone very careful.”

In indictments Tuesday against Ryan’s campaign fund and two former top aides, prosecutors portrayed a powerful political machine dependent on state workers who were expected to sell fund-raising tickets and do campaign work on the taxpayers’ dime.

Some workers in the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office, which Ryan ran before becoming governor, have admitted they tried to meet fund-raising goals by selling drivers’ licenses to unqualified truck drivers. Prosecutors say at least $170,000 in bribe money ended up in the Citizens for Ryan campaign.

Ryan, a Republican, has not been charged with wrongdoing and has refused to answer questions about the indictments.

Illinois has long been notorious for blurring the line between government and politics, most notably under the late Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

“We assume in Illinois that politics is a dirty business and a little bit of corruption is just part of the cost of doing business,” said Professor Kent Redfield, a politics and campaign finance expert at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “Now I think people are going to be a lot more careful, a lot more circumspect.”

The government alleges that Ryan’s former chief of staff and campaign manager, Scott Fawell, ran a criminal enterprise that illegally used state employees for campaign work and covered up the wrongdoing by firing internal investigators, shredding documents and lying to a grand jury. Also charged was Richard Juliano, a former Ryan aide.

Fawell’s attorney said his client “has committed no crime” and will plead innocent. Juliano is cooperating with prosecutors and will plead guilty to one count of mail fraud, according to his attorney.