Children have been conceived, born and started school since police swooped down on cabinet offices at the B.C. legislature in December 2003, hauling away boxes of documents and computers.

The Liberal government is nearing the end of its second election campaign haunted by the many accusations, political and criminal, that stemmed from the unprecedented RCMP search.

Three former government officials are facing trial for corruption connected to the privatization of the Crown-owned BC Rail.

The opposition New Democrats have used revelations from the pre-trial process as campaign fodder, capped by an American-style attack ad on TV.

"It's a corruption scandal we now know goes to the heart of premier's office," says the ad.

It alleges Campbell's former campaign co-chairman received $300,000 to sell BC Rail, and that there are allegations the bidding process was "rigged." It says the company that won is run by a major donor and "chief fundraiser" for Campbell.

"BC Rail, gone, and Gordon Campbell's friends got rich," it says.

The issue resonates with voters, say the New Democrats.

"I think with a lot of soft Liberal voters in particular we've seen this kind of issue give them a lot of pause over the last few months in particular but also in the last couple of years," says NDP campaign co-chair Gerry Scott.

But there's little evidence the Liberals will suffer at the ballot box next Tuesday.

A survey by The Canadian Press Harris-Decima indicates about one in five voters mistrust Campbell, ranking it the second most important issue for the poll's 1,000 online respondents.

Yet the survey found that most B.C. voters believe Campbell is best to lead the province through tough economic times.

"This data doesn't necessarily signal to me that this BC Rail issue is the crucial driver of mistrust," says Jeff Walker, the firm's senior vice-president.

It's more likely to reinforce the antipathy many voters apparently have for their long-serving premier, he says, noting the scandal itself hardly registered in the poll conducted for The Canadian Press.

Despite a 2001 campaign promise to keep Crown-owned BC Rail in public hands, the railway was sold to CN Rail in 2003.

On Dec. 28, 2003, police raided on the offices of two ministerial aides, Dave Basi, assistant to then-finance minister Gary Collins, and Bobby Virk, who worked for then-transportation minister Judith Reid.

Virk and Basi were charged with accepting a benefit, fraud and breach of trust in relation to the sale. It's alleged they took money from lobbyists representing CN's rival for the purchase of BC Rail, OmniTrax, in exchange for confidential information about the $1-billion sale.

Police said at the outset no elected politicians were suspected of wrongdoing.

That hasn't stopped critics from alleging Virk and Basi weren't just striking out on their own.

The case is dotted with the names of Liberal activists, such as Erik Bornmann, a one-time aide to former prime minister Paul Martin. Bornmann and partner Brian Kieran, a former journalist, ran Pilothouse Public Affairs, which lobbied on behalf of OmniTrax.

Police allege Pilothouse funnelled $30,000 to Basi and Virk. Bornmann is expected to testify when the case eventually goes to trial.

The defence has argued the pair were acting on instructions from Collins, who wanted OmniTrax to stay in the bidding race to avoid the appearance of a lopsided competition. Collins has denied the allegation and faces no charges.

The defence, alleging the bidding process was rigged, has forced the Crown's special prosecutor and the government to disclose thousands of pages of documents related to the sale.

Legal arguments over those documents have helped drag out the case for more than five years.

They led to a revelation this year that Patrick Kinsella, the former Liberal campaign co-chairman, was paid $297,000 in consulting fees by BC Rail between 2002 and 2005.

NDP critic Leonard Krog has alleged documents show Kinsella also worked for CN during the privatization and arranged meetings with Campbell and his chief of staff when it appeared the deal was foundering.

Kinsella, through his lawyer, demanded earlier in the election campaign that the NDP withdraw statements alleging a conflict of interest on his part and apologize, or face a lawsuit.

The party's response was the attack ad, which does not mention Kinsella but claims the scandal reaches into the premier's office.

Campbell and other Liberals have refused to comment, saying it's all before the courts. Scott scoffs at that as "fiction."

But it does seem to have dampened down the scandal as a campaign issue, says political scientist Doug McArthur of Simon Fraser University.

"I think probably just from pure political tactics Campbell was successful in stonewalling on this and so it didn't blossom into a bigger issue," he says.

Steve Mertl reports for The Canadian Press