It's more blip than groundswell, but Western Pennsylvania is providing the lion's share of support for a constitutional convention to shake up our corrupt statehouse in Harrisburg.

"The online petition signings from your end of the world are in the hundreds," Tim Potts of Democracy Rising Pennsylvania e-mailed last week. "Large numbers [are] from Allegheny County, but many also are from Westmoreland, Beaver, Butler and Washington'' counties.

"If I had your kind of following, this would be over.''

It's gratifying to hear that so many readers responded to last week's column supporting this petition drive for a 2010 state constitutional convention. But were I a legislator, the numbers would not have me fearing for my job.

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The hand count had just 979 signatures in a state of more than 12.4 million. The county count showed some 291 petitioners from Allegheny, 28 from Beaver, 30 from Butler, 40 from Westmoreland, 21 from Fayette, 19 from Washington and one from Armstrong.

So four of every nine signatures came from the Pittsburgh metro area. Meantime, Philadelphia, the state's largest county with more than 1.4 million people, produced just 12 signatures. Somebody on the Philadelphia Daily News needs to rile the readership there.

All that said, this isn't a bad start. Rome wasn't sacked in a day.

Let's face it, petition-signing ain't festive and people are crazy busy this time of year. I got an idea when my daughters started playing this free computer game, "Santa's Magic Clock,'' that the Pittsburgh Foundation is co-sponsoring.

Christopher Whitlatch of Cranberry and Mark Bursic of Indiana Township are the co-creators. The premise is that Santa's clock began running backwards, erasing Christmas from time, and all the reindeer had to get day jobs. Or something. My 10- and 11-year-old gave an explanation that was about as clear as eggnog to me.

All I know is that this is the third annual version of the game and the number of kids who play it is likely to blow away the number of voters who sign this petition.

We need a game to goose this petition. It could be like the Whac-A-Mole arcade game, only in this one, every time one of the state's 253 lawmakers puts his head up, a citizen whacks it until at least 50 from America's Largest Full-Time-Salaried State Legislature disappear.

I called Mr. Whitlatch, the self-described "online social media geek'' behind the Santa game, for suggestions. Off the top of his head, he suggested embedding the petition in a story, so it could be reached only if a voter answered the right clues; a Pennsylvania trivia contest that pitted one county against another; and a game that offered clues to get players to a particular location, where a living, breathing person would have the petition ready.

That sounded as convoluted as Harrisburg logic, though it did seem to offer at least one more quiz show for Ken Rice to host.

It can be argued that the Internet is the wrong medium for this crusade. Bram Reichbaum of "The Pittsburgh Comet" blog wrote: "If we do this, the big heavy rock at the tip of our battering ram should not be 'an online petition.' ... Those are not so intimidating -- people fully [comprehend] how little physical and psychic commitment goes into affixing a name onto a computer form. Get those people on the streets with paper and pen, or with quills if possible.''

Mr. Reichbaum suggests "more tea parties ... if I've learned one thing about politicians it's that nothing scares 'em like a bunch of feisty people showing up uninvited.''

Well, that and indictments. Fifteen people associated with the House Democratic caucus and 10 from the House Republicans have been arrested in Attorney General Tom Corbett's investigation so far. The fear is bipartisan, and healthy.

But Mr. Reichbaum's point is well-taken. The online petition at democracyrisingpa.com is a decent start, but only that. About 20 Western Pennsylvanians also wrote to Democracy Rising Pennsylvania; P.O. Box 618; Carlisle, PA 17013, to be mailed a petition to sign. That's even better.

But we'll probably need some marching in the streets if we want a convention next year. I'm for that -- when the weather warms.