Russ Diamond, a self-described political junkie who led an unsuccessful run for the state House as third-party candidate last year, was glued to the television in the early morning hours of July 7. He watched intently as Pennsylvania legislators, without much fuss or debate, slipped through a last-minute budget amendment that gave them a 16 percent pay raise just moments before fleeing the capitol for summer recess.

Like thousands of other Pennsylvanians, Diamond was outraged.

"It was a final straw for me," says the eccentric 42-year-old DVD manufacturer, on the phone from his hometown outside Harrisburg. "What have they done to earn a pay raise? Our schools are a mess. Our economic indicators are near bottom. The list of bad things this general assembly has accomplished is so long I usually just ask people to name one good thing they've done."

Diamond, though, did more than just gripe about the General Assembly's third self-appropriated pay hike in the last two decades. (Their $81,050 annual salary ranks second only to California legislators, who earn $110,880 a year, but who also, on average, represent six times as many constituents than Pennsylvania legislators.) He forked over a $182 registration fee and created Operation Clean Sweep (www.pacleansweep.com), a Web site dedicated to knocking off every General Assembly incumbent — Democrats and Republicans alike — up for reelection in 2006.

In his homepage, "Founders Statement," Diamond frames his efforts in floating oratory that often goes over the top.

"In my eyes, they are much like the money changers in the temple of Biblical lore," he writes of the General Assembly, before predicting that he will be "persecuted, hounded, and brow-beaten by those I seek to defeat. … But that is quite all right. I am one individual, with no family to consider, and while they may break me financially or in reputation, I take comfort in the knowledge that I stand on the side of everything that is right, decent and proper."

Diamond says the site got more than 31,000 hits in its first three weeks, and 10 people have already declared themselves as candidates, with another "30 people getting their ducks in row." Diamond says he will run only if no one else more qualified from his district steps up as a candidate. Some Philadelphia-based legislators who voted for the raise and are up for re-election in 2006 include Rep. Babette Josephs, Rep. Dwight Evans and Rep. Jewell Williams. (A complete list is available on www.pacleansweep.com.)

Nearly 50 Operation Clean Sweep volunteer "county coordinators" are spread throughout the state, says Diamond, and are, among other things, using e-mail to encourage local voters to temporarily switch party registration if that will allow them to vote against an incumbent in May's primary elections. He adds that Operation Clean Sweep is not accepting donations and will not make campaign contributions.

"We want your action," he says. "Not your money."

Still, just as he predicted, Diamond's integrity has come under fire. A Republican state committee member recently filed a complaint with the Federal Election Committee claiming Diamond commingled campaign funds while simultaneously running for the state House and the state Senate last year. A week after the Web site went up, the editor of Diamond's local newspaper, the Lebanon Daily News, received an anonymous tip about the complaint. Diamond dismisses the charges as "silly" and "baseless" and expects to be fully cleared.

Plus, he says that voters should ignore talk that the pay hike will force legislators to finally raise the state's minimum wage.

"That's just an effort to get back in people's good graces and keep their jobs," he says. "Their own skin is what they're worried about. They could care less about the people of Pennsylvania."

The public clamor over the pay raise has already led five legislators to pull an about-face and publicly declare that they will not pocket the loot. Others, however, took advantage of a loophole allowing them to receive their raises immediately through "unvouchered expense reports," rather than waiting until after the next election as the state constitution requires.

While many politicos expect the anger to dissipate by election time, Diamond remains confident that Operation Clean Sweep will be able to knock off a few incumbents.

"They said the anger would fade after a week and it didn't. Then they said it would fade after a month and it didn't. People are ticked off and now they have a choice," he says. "They can stand up and fight or they can remain lazy and get the same old crappy government and self-serving officials."