More than 100 people rallied Monday inside the Capitol rotunda, demanding a ban on gifts and outside employment for state lawmakers, protesting what they called legislators’ unchecked private interests.

Activists with March on Harrisburg delivered speeches criticizing Pennsylvania’s lax campaign finance laws, with one speaker noting that 35 fundraisers are scheduled in Harrisburg this week, before marching through the building.

Rabbi Michael Pollock, executive director of March on Harrisburg, said it was tiring to watch lawmakers play the “blame” game.

“Our state legislature is broken for the people of Pennsylvania,” Pollock said in his speech, “and fixed on behalf of the ultra-rich billionaires.”

After the speeches, protestors held banners spanning up to four people and loudly chanted “Pass the gift ban. Don’t take bribes.”

In all, Capitol Police arrested 18 protestors — with one officer shoving a couple of demonstrators — and grabbed the banners from the marchers as they moved in.

Protestors were arrested for blocking access to hallways and trying to enter a senator’s office.

This is the ninth year that March on Harrisburg has protested at the Capitol. Pollock said demonstrators were arrested at prior protests where Capitol Police pressed misdemeanor charges, but that hasn’t happened in recent years.

Around 40 demonstrators walked to the third floor and waited outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, for about 40 minutes. Some sat on the floor outside his door, with one calling out, “I’m going to stay all night.”

Four people got detained by Capitol Police when they tried to enter the office. Pollock said later that he knew of several protestors who received summary citations for defiant trespass.

They later moved to the atrium outside the office of House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, lining the hallway and chanting, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Bribery has got to go!”

A spokesperson for March on Harrisburg said neither Pittman nor Bradford met with the group’s leaders.

“We saw them running away, packing their bags,” Pollock said, after waiting in Bradford’s office for about an hour. “I don’t know why he is so afraid of talking to his constituents.”

Rep. Joe Webster, D-Montgomery County, and Rep. Jared Solomon, D-Philadelphia, sponsored a variety of bills this legislative session to limit gifts and increase reporting requirements. But none have gained traction in the legislature.

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