The blatant use of legislative staff by state House Democrats for political, re-election purposes appears to have been as bad as most people imagined — or maybe worse.

Several former employees of the House Democratic Legislative Research Office have told investigators with the state Attorney General's Office that they were placed in make-work jobs during non-election periods so they would be available to do campaign work for incumbents and anyone else supported by Democratic leaders during election years.

One former employee, Jason Lawrence, now a law student in Chicago, told a Pittsburgh newspaper, "There were times I had an hour or two of work to do in an eight-hour day." When there was no election-related or political work to be done, some employees in the House Democratic Research Office were reportedly given a simple job, such as writing a letter, but given the entire week to get the work done.

At other times, employees in the Democratic research office surfed the Internet or listened to the radio. There were times when long hours were expected, even though actual work did not justify the time. The idea, according to explanations given to investigators, was for employees to build up compensatory time to work on campaigns of Democratic House members or others supported by party leadership.

The scheme of no-work jobs for campaign workers based in the House Democratic Legislative Research Office, according to several different people who have talked with state investigators, was set up by former House Democratic Whip Mike Veon, who now works as a lobbyist in Harrisburg after losing his 2006 re-election bid.

The idea of using other people's money, that's taxpayer money, to help incumbents win elections is not new. The practice is, however, illegal and that's been the focus of Attorney General Tom Corbett's ongoing investigation.

One former employee told investigators that workers were expected to do some kind of campaign work — either door-to-door campaign work or working a phone bank or doing "opposition research" on Republicans, if they wanted to keep their jobs.

The widening scandal for House Democrats began as an investigation into outsized legislative bonuses, which ballooned following the 2006 elections compared with the smaller bonuses paid in 2005, a non-election year. In total, House Democrats paid legislative bonuses of $1.9 million for work that appeared to be purely political, or re-election related. The biggest bonuses paid were close to $18,000.

In addition to testimony from former employees, state investigators have paper and electronic records gathered in an Aug. 23, 2007, raid on the House Democratic Legislative Research Office.

The latest information about the program suggests it was so extensive that it is difficult to believe that more Democratic leaders, other than Veon, were not aware of its activities, including the sham jobs, political work, as well as the millions of dollars in improper bonuses.

Given the brashness of the political work being done under the guise of legislative research, it seems likely that Corbett's investigation will result in indictments and convictions. That in turn will create some court-imposed turnover in the General Assembly.

If that happens, the legal system will have helped bring change to Harrisburg. The change brought about by the Bonusgate investigation will add to the change brought about by voters in 2006 when 55 new lawmakers came to Harrisburg as a result of the outrage over the 2 a.m. pay-raise vote in July 2005.

The behavior of those party leaders involved in the Bonusgate affair echoes the same attitude of arrogance, entitlement and brash disregard for the interests of voters — or the law — displayed in leadership in the notorious pay-raise vote.

Real change has been painfully slow to come to Harrisburg. The investigation into Bonusgate and the activities of the House Democratic Legislative Research Office could well provide the reform movement with another shot in the arm. But voters have to continue to pay attention to abuses, and to apply unrelenting pressure for change.