HARRISBURG — A day after political corruption charges were filed against 12 people connected to the state House's Democratic caucus, the political establishment on Friday began readying for the aftershocks to reverberate through the state Capitol.

"I think the future political implications are enormous," said Rep. Karen Beyer, R-Lehigh, who learned in a grand jury report issued Thursday that her Democratic opponent in 2006 got significant help from the alleged illegal use of state workers and resources.

The 2005 pay raise law that led to the defeat of 24 incumbents "was a six earthquake," Beyer said. "I think this is a nine."

Rep. Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, who heads his caucus' campaign effort heading into the Nov. 4 election, said the arrests of a sitting Democratic representative, a former Democratic House whip and 10 current and former caucus employees aren't making his job any easier.

"No leader gets to choose when they're on the battlefield," he said.

Incumbents running this fall should expect questions about how they manage their campaign volunteers and whether their state-paid staff meticulously avoids the practices described in the attorney general's criminal allegations.

"I think it's probably one of the smartest campaign moves that any challenger makes this year," said Russ Diamond, who founded the PACleanSweep group that helped organize the anti-incumbent effort in the 2006 elections.

"In this kind of situation, Average Joe paints these legislators with a very broad brush, and in some part of their mind is going to consider them guilty — until proven innocent — by association," Diamond said.

The pay raise backlash helped lead to some reforms in which the General Assembly changed some of its internal rules and passed a new open-records law. A number of other reform measures — including a ban on bonuses — have passed the Senate but have stalled in the House.

"I thought the reform movement was, I won't say moribund, but certainly on close to life support," said Terry Madonna, a Franklin & Marshall College political scientist and longtime observer of Pennsylvania politics. "I think that everybody is going to be a reformer again."

The potential list of reform topics is long, including new rules for campaign donations and lobbying; a less partisan system of drawing up legislative districts; a ban on gifts to lawmakers; and a cutback on taxpayer-paid mailings and broadcast advertisements.

"Think about this: Incumbency wasn't enough," Diamond said. "Cardboard checks weren't enough. Newsletters and taxpayer funded PSAs weren't enough. Constituent services weren't enough. None of that was enough — these people had to actually break the law to the extent that they did to win."

The filing of charges does not mean the defendants are guilty, and lawyers for several defendants have denied the allegations. But the court of public opinion is at the heart of politics, and Democratic state representatives will have to figure out whether a reshuffling of their leadership team will help distance them from the scandal.

House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, had close ties to two of the central figures in the alleged conspiracy, and the case has clouded his future. DeWeese, who has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing, was not available for an interview on Friday, a spokesman said.

"Bill at the moment is still the Democratic leader, and we'll just have to take it one day at a time," Eachus said.

Attorney General Tom Corbett has indicated that all four caucuses remain under investigation. Several Republicans interviewed Friday had low-key responses to the charges, but all said they worried the scandal would lower the public's overall opinion of the General Assembly.

"The evidence is obviously suspicious and alarming. We're still in kind of a wait-and-see," said state Republican Party spokesman Mike Barley. "These investigations still haven't concluded and we want to see how everything shakes out."

Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, said his caucus has "always been mindful ... of separating legislative work from political work."

"When the public trust is defied, it's really never any time for anybody to gloat," Miskin said. "I can't imagine anybody's being gleeful in the wake of this."