CHICAGO – www.chicagotribune.com- Law enforcement officials who successfully pressured Craigslist to remove an erotic services category they say had become little more than an Internet brothel are touting it as simply good public policy.

But it wasn’t bad politics, either.

Credit was quickly claimed by officials ranging from the county sheriff whose jurisdiction includes Chicago to the attorneys general in Connecticut, Illinois and New York — all of whom are likely to sock it away in their political storehouses.

“They could use this in TV advertising when they run for re-election,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “It’s a political winner; there is literally no downside. Most voters would applaud and those who don’t won’t say a peep.”

Law enforcers who got involved in the high-profile fight against Craigslist insisted they did so because the site’s erotic services ads sometimes involved children and human trafficking.

“These are horrible crimes and we need to take them seriously as a society,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan,[pictured] who is considering a run for governor next year, said while skirting a question about whether the issue would help her politically.

When Craigslist said this week it would voluntarily replace its “erotic services ” category with a fee-based “adult services” category and monitor postings before they appeared online, Madigan told a Chicago news conference the company’s decision came a week after she and attorneys general Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Chris Koster of Missouri sent Craigslist an ultimatum: police the site or take it down.

Just a few blocks away, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart — who sued Craigslist in March, not long after making national headlines for refusing to evict tenants from foreclosed rental properties — said it was his federal lawsuit that prompted action. The suit had its first hearing Wednesday.

Many believe the former prosecutor and state representative, recently named one of Time magazine’s most influential people, will run for attorney general.

“This was not a stunt, this was not to squeeze money out of people; this was to do the right thing,” said Dart, emphasizing that he’s been fighting Craigslist for 2{ years. But he panned as too weak a monitoring agreement with Craigslist brokered by Blumenthal in November on behalf of 40 attorneys general.

“I think … it is clear that but for our lawsuit and the pressure we brought … that is what brought this to conclusion,” said Dart, who has said he’s happy as sheriff but is keeping his options open.

And New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, believed to be preparing for the governor’s race next year, claimed the company acted only because his office informed Craigslist that a criminal prostitution probe had implicated the site.

Craigslist had been facing increasing scrutiny after a Boston man was charged last month with killing a masseuse he met on the site. The site agreed to remove its erotic services section despite its contention that it has been unfairly singled out.

Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois in Springfield, said he believes the concern by law enforcement officials was legitimate and sincere, but “sometimes you can have good policy and good politics.”

“It’s also the sort of thing that gets you a broad reputation,” Redfield noted. “It builds up name recognition to go after a bunch of issues that can get you favorable press.”

Madigan has signed on to other high-profile lawsuits in the past, including against Countrywide, the lender widely blamed for the subprime mortgage crisis. But she’s not the only one.

Connecticut’s media-savvy Blumenthal has made his career taking on well-known causes such as tobacco companies, Microsoft, HMOs, polluters, utilities and corporate cheats. Blumenthal said he wants to use his high-profile soap box to bring attention to prostitution.

“As a public official, I think I have a public responsibility to be vocal and vociferous on threats to public safety where citizens can help fight it, help fight the problem,” he said Wednesday.

He has turned down opportunities to run for governor in the past, but has never ruled it out.

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer earned the nickname “Sheriff of Wall Street” during his two terms as attorney general for going after financial corruption, including pursuing now-defunct insurance giant American International Group — and was elected governor with a record share of the vote in 2006. Some speculated he might run for president before he resigned in disgrace after he was caught soliciting high-priced prostitutes.

Now Cuomo has taken up the mantel against AIG, Craigslist and other causes, and appears ready to leverage it for his benefit. He consistently ranks well in polls of potential gubernatorial candidates.

Attorneys general, especially, have a pulpit from which they can make a name for themselves without looking like just another politician, analysts say.

“I’ve spoken to the National Association of Attorneys General and said, ‘It’s good to be here at the National Association of Aspiring Governors,”‘ Sabato said. “They all laugh at it.”