Perzel accused of 'dirty tricks' on GOP, too

HARRISBURG - State Rep. Curt Schroder of Chester County wasn't worried about the Republican primary in spring 2006. He was running unopposed. All he needed to do was get enough voters to sign his nominating petitions.

But in February - around the time his petitions were due - Schroder's constituents began receiving peculiar telephone calls.

The calls were automated. A voice told voters not to sign the petitions because Schroder "opposed property-tax reform," the legislator said Friday.

Schroder had an idea of who was behind the mystery calls. But he wasn't sure until last week, when a grand jury concluded that John M. Perzel, then the House speaker, had ordered the calls to punish Schroder for not siding with Perzel on the property-tax issue.

During his decade occupying the two highest positions in the House, Perzel, 59, of Northeast Philadelphia, was known for wielding his power to win elections and protect GOP incumbents.

But he also used his political muscle against fellow Republicans, such as Schroder, who he felt had strayed from the party line - and used taxpayer money to do it, according to a grand jury's presentment.

The 188-page presentment announced Thursday by Attorney General Tom Corbett described widespread use of computer technology for Republican campaigns, and accused Perzel and others of using more than $10 million in state funding to pay for it.

Perzel, who was arraigned Friday with nine other defendants and freed after posting $100,000 bail, faces 82 counts of theft, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice.

"I have never used public funds for my personal or political gain," Perzel said. He accused Corbett, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, of "political opportunism."

The charges against Perzel and nine other people with ties to the House GOP caucus came 16 months after Corbett brought charges against a dozen House Democratic insiders for allegedly scheming to pay state bonuses to legislative staffers for political work.

In Corbett's statement Thursday, a summary of one portion of the latest evidence amassed by the grand jury was titled "Perzel's Dirty Tricks Against Republicans." The section described bitter internecine warfare in the Republican caucus under Perzel.

"The grand jury found that Perzel punished a group of Republican House members who refused to adequately conform to his directives on how they should vote by directing untraceable robo, or automated, calls against them in their districts," the statement said. ". . . Perzel directed robo calls against his own members about a dozen times."

"The calls were scripted in an extremely critical and damaging way . . . and would often allow the constituent to directly connect to the representative's office to complain," Corbett said.

The allegations contained an echo of those made in a previous case against a powerful Philadelphia legislator: the federal indictment of State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo in 2007.

Those charges said Fumo, a Democrat, had used a state-paid private eye to spy on Perzel, among others - including fellow Democrat Ed Rendell before his election as governor in 2002.

Fumo, convicted in March of fraud, tax offenses, and obstruction of justice, has begun a 55-month prison sentence.

Perzel had clashed with Fumo over such issues as the GOP takeover of the Philadelphia Parking Authority and details of legislation legalizing slot machines in the state.

In a statement at the time, Perzel said he was surprised to learn that Fumo allegedly had him "under surveillance."

"But since first getting elected to public office 30 years ago, my life has been an open book, so you grow accustomed to these intrusions and violations of your privacy," Perzel said then.

News of last week's state charges against Perzel did not surprise Schroder, whom Corbett described as a "favorite" target of Perzel's.

"It came back to bite him politically, and now legally," said Schroder, referring to Perzel's failed attempt to regain the speaker's post despite Democrats' having taken a one-vote edge in the House in 2006 elections.

But Schroder said he was startled to learn that the grand jury had concluded Perzel was behind the robo calls to his constituents in February 2006.

"I thought that would be one of life's great mysteries that never got solved," he said Friday.

Schroder ran into trouble with Perzel by supporting non-party-line positions on a number of bills - including a short-lived proposal to abolish property taxes. Calls that went out to his district said, "Do not sign Curt Schroder's petitions because he opposed property-tax reform," Schroder recalled.

"Its impact was negligible" he said in an interview. "It confused people more than anything."

He said he had an inkling of who was behind it. "I knew it wasn't a Democrat," he said. "I had no Democratic opponent that year."

The grand jury found that Perzel had used a New Orleans software developer, GCR & Associates Inc., to carry out the calls, with help from a second contractor, Corbett said. He said GCR had charged the GOP House caucus about $3,200 for each round of calls.

Former State Rep. John Barley could probably understand how Schroder felt. In 2001, when Barley was House Appropriations Committee chairman, Perzel decided Barley was a "political liability" and launched a negative campaign in his southern Lancaster County district, the grand jury presentment said.

It said Perzel had ordered an aide to set up a "push poll," a smear tactic in which callers purporting to be opinion pollsters ask voters to react to negative claims about a candidate.

In this case, the callers made "unsavory" claims about Barley, according to the presentment.

In a surprise announcement the next year, Barley said he would not run again because of unspecified "harassment from an opposition group."

Interviewed Friday, Barley declined to comment on the grand jury's findings or on the impact the alleged push poll may have had on his career.

"I am at a wonderful stage in life, enjoying life and my business. That's about all I have to say," said Barley, now a lobbyist in Harrisburg. "I've moved on."