CHICAGO – Since the heyday of the city’s machine politics, punching a straight Democratic ticket on Election Day has been as dependable a Chicago tradition as hot dogs without ketchup and the Cubs breaking their fans’ hearts.

But this November, the automatic vote is turning out to be a little too dependable for the state’s Democratic leaders.

The feared victory Tuesday of a former state lawmaker indicted on federal bribery charges has top Democrats scrambling to defeat one of their own. They’ve hand-picked a rival candidate, set up a separate “independent” political party for him and deployed their precinct operations in an effort to avoid embarrassment for a party and state already suffering from a reputation for corruption.