Nov 20, 2005 By Alison Hawkes For The 3 min read

HARRISBURG – Russ Diamond was up late the night of the pay raise, doing research for his CD and DVD replication business, with the television on in the background. A newshound, he’d been keeping up with the tidbits about the possibility of a raise. Strangely enough, he said he didn’t see it go down that night, so quickly and silently it happened.

“I didn’t fully know what happened until the next day when I read the papers,” Diamond said. “I was ticked.”

The 42-year-old Lebanon County man, a lifelong Independent, stewed about it alone for days. Then, his 27-year-old, apolitical nephew stopped by, complaining that his senator’s $34,000 pay raise was more than he earned all year.

“That made me think,” said Diamond. “If my nephew, who doesn’t pay attention at all is upset, perhaps other Pennsylvanians are as well.”

Diamond slapped up a Web site called Operation Clean Sweep, with a bold call to boot all the rascals out of office. Then, he took his hue and cry to the media, working off an old contact list he had from his 2004’s bids for U.S. Congress and state House.

Within days he got 2,300 angry e-mails and said he responded to every one them.

A movement was born.

Diamond insists he’s more a loner than a collaborator. But he’s set up a network of 72 county PACleanSweep coordinators, an 11-member board, and a growing cadre of candidates for office next year. His list has 4,700 e-mail addresses.

This is something he’s never done before.

But Diamond is a natural in front of the cameras, with pithy sound-bites and an uncompromising message. Think lawmakers deserve a pat on the back for repealing the pay raise?

“They got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. And like any good parent, we have to decide how to discipline our children,” he says.

All the media attention has been a pleasant surprise. In his younger days, Diamond played guitar in a rock band. “We tried real hard to get famous,” he said.

Instead, being a state government critic has done that.

Diamond doesn’t rule politics out of his future, though he adds he’s trying to find candidates to run against his own lawmakers (one of them is Senate Republican leader Chip Brightbill). But he’ll run himself if he must.

If anything, he says his self-interest in the issue has to do with his company. Diamond said the business climate in Pennsylvania is horrible because of high taxes and he’s been pondering a move to South Carolina.

Republicans are pushing for lower business taxes. But Diamond said that misses the point.

“I am a conservative person. I recognize other people in Pennsylvania who disagree with me. The problem is, we can’t take that conversation into the legislative process because we don’t have an honest forum.”

Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or ahawkes@calkins-media.com.