INDIANAPOLIS | Bob Pastrick left the East Chicago mayor's office following defeat in a 2004 special election prompted by rampant absentee ballot fraud in the regular contest a year earlier.

His last successful re-election, in 1999, later was tainted by the unearthing of a massive sidewalks-for-votes scandal that snared a trio of top aides and three city councilmen. But Pastrick, the so-called King of Steeltown, never has been charged with a crime.

And that's enough for the Indiana Democratic Party.

Despite his considerable political baggage, the 33-year mayor continues to serve as one of three Hoosiers on the Democratic National Committee. The prime post, which Pastrick has held for more than three decades, makes him a member of the exclusive club of 13 Indiana superdelegates.

"We think a lot of Bob Pastrick," said Bonnie Reese, a Wheatfield Democrat, who serves as 1st District chairwoman of the party's State Central Committee. "He's an elder statesman of the party, and we treat him with respect. And unless he's convicted of a crime, we're going to keep on treating him with respect."

State Democrats have no plans to push Pastrick, 80, toward political retirement, even though the longtime mayor is at the center of a civil racketeering lawsuit seeking to recover more than $24 million in public money diverted to a paving spree that preceded his last re-election victory.

"He'll always be welcomed in our party, and the attorney general hasn't proved anything in this case," said Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker. "The only thing he's proved is he can spend a lot of money with an out-of-state (legal) firm."

Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter, a Republican, launched the racketeering suit in August 2004, while Pastrick still was mayor and about a week after Indiana Democrats re-appointed him to the DNC. The state so far has recovered $1.3 million from former city officials and contractors, while paying $317,000 in legal fees to a former federal prosecutor who helped convict Illinois Gov. George Ryan.

The East Chicago civil case has become a flashpoint in the current race for attorney general between Republican Greg Zoeller and Democrat Linda Pence.

Zoeller, Carter's chief deputy, has vowed to carry out the lawsuit. Pence, who represented a paving firm that paid $625,000 to settle claims it colluded with city officials, has said she doesn't know enough about the case to make such a commitment.

Pastrick, meanwhile, said his continued presence in the state party should not cast a pall over Pence, or any other Democratic candidate.

"I can't see why that has any merit whatsoever toward their abilities and the manner with which they would conduct themselves in office," Pastrick said from his home in Ogden Dunes. "I certainly hope that everybody would have better judgment than that, around the state of Indiana, than to judge somebody on a situation that is in effect up here. It's a political situation, which I hope will be over soon."

Pastrick contends the civil racketeering suit is of little merit. In court papers he claims he knew nothing of the plot to pour driveways, patios and sidewalks for voters until his own city paycheck bounced in 1999.

And the longtime mayor said he hasn't decided whether to seek a new DNC term at the national convention in August.

"If he decides he wants to run again, I won't have a problem with it," said Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, the Lake County Democratic chairman. "(Pastrick) has always supported me."