The scandal surrounding Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's alleged attempt to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama's election to the presidency is sending shock waves across the country. As a still-developing story, it is unclear how many people eventually will be implicated in Blagojevich's schemes to use his political clout to enrich himself and his wife.

The political sleaze coming out of Illinois and Chicago is making bigger headlines than the recent political corruption stories from Harrisburg and Philadelphia. While Blagojevich and the dark history of political corruption in Chicago are dominating the news now, Pennsylvania's pols have demonstrated similar traits of arrogance and self-serving behavior.

At the core, the corruption charges surrounding Blagojevich and the famous machine-style politics of Chicago involve something known as pay-to-play. The power wielded by high-level politicians can often be exchanged for money, benign-looking campaign donations, or simply reciprocal political favors.

Pay-to-play has been exposed at just about every level of government, from local and state officials across the country to members of Congress. And Pennsylvania has seen its share of illegal — or at least questionable — behavior by powerful politicians trading favors for financial support or political gain.

The Bonusgate scandal in Harrisburg involves the apparent awarding of taxpayer-funded bonuses to legislative staffers for political, campaign-related work, which is illegal.

But because campaign work should be financed with campaign funds, not tax dollars, the politicians and political parties essentially enriched themselves at taxpayers' expense by spending other people's money for their campaign work.

The ongoing corruption trial of state Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, involves the alleged misuse of more than $1 million in state resources for Fumo's personal benefit, as well as the misuse of about $1 million in cash or assets of two Philadelphia nonprofit agencies to help finance an extravagant lifestyle for the soon-to-be-retired lawmaker.

Neither of these Keystone State scandals measures up to Blagojevich's alleged plan to sell a U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. But pay-to-play remains a concern in Pennsylvania.

Some reform-minded people in Harrisburg point to the $1 billion in no-bid contracts awarded by the administration of Gov. Ed Rendell. In particular, there has been criticism of Rendell's awarding millions of dollars worth of no-bid legal work to his former law firm in Philadelphia. Two former Rendell aides are now partners at the law firm. It's also been noted that the law firm serves as the home for a political action committee that has contributed more than $400,000 to Rendell's campaigns.

It still raises some eyebrows when it's learned that the firm has received more than $10 million in legal work from the state or state-related agencies such as the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

The legal and ethical lines are a bit blurry. No-bid contracts are permitted in certain circumstances and for a limited number of services. But critics argue that the Rendell administration has pushed the limit in awarding no-bid contracts to well-connected people and firms. And there are proposals in the General Assembly to force more state contracts through the competitive bidding process.

Contracts for legal work, consulting and financial services, including bond underwriting, are notorious for going to the well-connected through no-bid contracts.

So even if the Blagojevich charges in Illinois represent an extreme version of pay-to-play, there are reasons for Pennsylvanians — citizens and state lawmakers — to minimize pay-to-play opportunities by imposing more transparency and mandating a higher level of competitive bidding for state contracts.

The scandal surrounding Blagojevich is seen by some in Illinois as an opportunity to clean up state and Chicago politics. Pennsylvania has the same opportunities, inspired by similar — if less sensational — ethical lapses by elected officials.