CHICAGO – To the victor go the political spoils, and then the investigations start.

Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, who ran as a reformer to replace a predecessor recently convicted of accepting graft, now finds his own administration’s hiring practices under investigation.

The Associated Press has reported that hiring documents used in the early days of the Blagojevich administration included applicants’ names for jobs that are supposed to be filled free of politics. Such nonpolitical jobs are protected by civil service laws and a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on an Illinois case known as Rutan.

The Blagojevich administration has denied any improper conduct.

Mary Lee Leahy, the Springfield attorney who won the Rutan decision challenging patronage, said in addition to federal investigations there might be another way to get politicians’ attention about illegal patronage.

“I think what may need to happen is somebody is sued and a judgment is entered against them in a whopping big amount and then people would sit up and take notice,” Leahy said.

Other states are investigating the propriety of state hiring on their own.

In Chicago, a city as known for patronage as it is for tall buildings, former officials are on trial for hiring fraud, accused of covering up that clout, not merit, was used to decide who got city jobs in defiance of a 1983 court order.

Mayor Richard Daley has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

But testimony at the federal trial of his former patronage chief and three others has exposed just how deep political connections run in a city that was built on rewarding people who helped get out the vote on Election Day.