HARRISBURG — A former campaign manager testified Monday that he didn't know the legislative aide he was trying to get elected to state House of Representatives was on the state payroll and never noticed him doing any government work.

Erik Komendant, who said he was hired by the House Democratic Campaign Committee to oversee Sean Ramaley's general-election campaign, testified for the prosecution at Ramaley's trial, the first spawned by the state attorney general's investigation into alleged corruption in the Legislature.

Prosecutors contend then-House Democratic Whip Michael Veon gave Ramaley a no-work government job in the months before the 2004 election.

Komendant's testimony echoed Friday's testimony by Stephen Webb — a legislative staffer and political operative whom Veon brought in to help the campaign during the summer of 2004 — that Ramaley did no legislative work during the several weeks that he spent with the campaign.

But Komendant also said Ramaley's campaign was primarily run out of an office in a house Ramaley owns in Baden and a consolidated headquarters in Ambridge shared by other Democratic candidates.

"I didn't view (Veon's) district office as the place where he was running his campaign," said Komendant, now a congressional aide in Washington.

Ramaley's workload — or lack thereof — is a key element in the state's case against him. He is accused of taking a no-work job with Veon that paid him $2,500 a month in exchange for working hard to win the election.

Ramaley is charged with four counts of theft, one count of conflict of interest and one count of conspiracy.

Also Monday, two former top state House Democratic staff aides testified for the prosecution, answering questions about the payment of bonuses to staff members and hiring practices in the House Democratic caucus.

The aides — Michael Manzo, the former chief of staff to then-Democratic leader Bill DeWeese, and Jennifer Brubaker, the caucus' former legislative research director — have both signed plea agreements pledging to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for having some charges dropped.

Anthony Krastek, the senior deputy attorney general who is the lead prosecutor, said he expects to finish calling his witnesses today.

Defense lawyers will put on their case before it is sent to the jury of six women and six men.