SPRINGFIELD - A case involving two workers accused of breaking rules to help favored applicants get state jobs could end up as an examination of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's much-investigated employment procedures.

Blagojevich fired Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey last spring, saying they manipulated the system to help politically connected jobseekers.

The pair is asking the Civil Service Commission to give them their jobs back, claiming they broke no rules - but responded to special requests from the Democratic governor's office.

At a hearing on the charges, set to begin today before an administrative law judge, DeFraties and Casey want to introduce evidence that the governor's staff interfered to help certain favored applicants. The administration argues any such evidence is irrelevant to the case against DeFraties and Casey.

DeFraties, former personnel director for the Department of Central Management Services, and Casey, her one-time assistant, received thousands of applications in their Springfield office after joining the Blagojevich administration in early 2003.

They had no authority to give anyone jobs, but could give some applicants an edge.

The administration charges they violated procedures by accepting faxed applications, not recording applicants whose evaluations scored less than "A," putting some applications ahead of others in the decision process and allowing inadequate applications to be resubmitted without waiting the required time.

The administration has held up the case as an example of its efforts to root out corruption, beginning with a May news conference at which top Blagojevich aides announced the dismissals; Blagojevich decried a few "bad apples" in his administration.

But DeFraties and Casey are trying to turn the tables on the administration and have made the actions of the governor's office a key part of their defense.

Last week, they filed dozens of e-mails from the governor's personnel office suggesting its close involvement in hiring - even for jobs that are protected by law from political considerations and for which military veterans are supposed to get first chance.

"If your supervisor sends you a special application and says, 'Do it this way,' it certainly is relevant as to whether you violated any rule at the workplace," said Carl Draper, attorney for DeFraties and Casey.

The state executive inspector general's office, which conducted a yearlong investigation, concluded that many job applications were submitted through the governor's office or state lawmakers. The inspector's confidential report, obtained by The Associated Press last summer, also indicated that the allegedly improper practices continued for months after DeFraties and Casey left CMS.

The administration has stopped talking publicly about the case, and testimony is likely to be highly technical discussion of rules about faxing applications or when a rejected application can be resubmitted.

The case centers on 28 so-called "special applications." The administration claims that for all but one of those applications, DeFraties and Casey did not officially record a grade if it was below an "A" and let the applicant try again later.

An Associated Press analysis of the 28 cases in November showed weaknesses in each one. Investigators relied on the wrong dates for key events, some applicants who investigators said got "A" grades never got any grade, and some candidates were never hired.

While Blagojevich has been investigating DeFraties and Casey, federal prosecutors have investigated the Blagojevich administration. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said last summer he had witnesses to allegations of "endemic hiring fraud."

Draper admits no wrongdoing on the part of his clients.

The administration says it found the 28 improper applications in a log that Casey kept to track more than 2,000 "special applications" his office received.

If Casey kept the log, Draper said, it was so he could tell the governor's office and lawmakers what happened to the applicants they recommended. Draper said Casey's job description included acting as a liaison to the governor's office and handling special personnel requests.

The governor's office has described separate lists of job candidates that it kept in a similar manner as a way to track applications and apprise sponsors of their status, not to assure that clout trumped merit in job assignments.

Draper will try to block the government's attempt to use the log as evidence because it's a printout of a computerized database. But the government says it doesn't have the electronic version.

Each line of the printed log is numbered chronologically, but the AP found there are 67 numbers missing. The administration and its lawyers have refused to explain what information is omitted.

Administration lawyers want to bar Draper from testifying about whether DeFraties was told she didn't have to answer questions asked by a Blagojevich lawyer last spring. The administration has asked the judge either to bar Draper from testifying or from representing DeFraties and Casey.

The lawyers also want the governor's involvement barred as a subject of the hearing.

"Who sent the special applications isn't even relevant," Greg James, one of the lawyers, said at a hearing in December. "The question is: Did the two respondents follow procedures at CMS?"