Nuggets from the report range from the ironic to the bizarre

In happier days, when Don McClintock was a campaign aide to state Rep. John Perzel, he would sometimes joke about the illegality of using state workers for political tasks, wondering aloud if his family would someday see him on the news being put in a police car.

That's one of several ironic revelations in a 188-page grand jury presentment charging Perzel, McClintock and eight associates with corruption crimes. Here are some other vignettes from the report:

* Anthony Painter, a 28-year employee of the Republican caucus in the Legislature, told the grand jury it was so common for state employees to do political work on the job that they had a phrase for it: "working over lunch." Painter was granted immunity and cooperated in the investigation.

* Perzel was obsessed with campaign strategy, frequently attending conferences to pick up new ideas. When he decided that Republicans should start using handheld computers in field efforts, he and three other operatives made a 2001 trip to Las Vegas to check out the hardware at a technology show.

* In 2006, Perzel wanted his computer geeks to create a database on his desktop allowing him to pull up a profile and picture of a person he was calling.

His techies took a ton of hardware to a Republican fundraiser to scan guests' driver's licenses for Perzel's file. The idea flopped, the report says, because "people were rather unwilling to voluntarily permit someone to scan their driver's licenses."

* A bizarre plan by Perzel and then-chief of staff Brian Preski to make money from the political software that taxpayers had paid to develop involved creating a company that would sell the program to, among others, the 2003 Sam Katz for Mayor campaign.

The idea went nowhere because the field director for Katz campaign, William Tomaselli, was another Perzel operative who was a principal with Perzel's and Preski's wives in the software firm. He didn't think he could award a contract to a firm of which he was part owner.

* In 2008, when members of the Perzel team were feeling the heat of the corruption probe, Tomaselli said Preski made a point of telling him that he had no idea state resources had been used on Perzel's campaigns.

Tomaselli told the grand jury he just laughed and said, "Yeah, right."

Tomaselli testified under a grant of immunity.

* When Republicans lost control of the state House by the barest of margins in 2006, Perzel believed bad voter data from his contracted computer firms had undermined the GOP effort.

He went to New Orleans to confront executives of GCR & Associates, bringing his wife, son and five aides. Taxpayers covered the travel costs of everyone but Perzel's family.

The grand jury presentment represents the allegations of prosecutors. All 10 of those charged have pleaded not guilty.