HARRISBURG -- A state grand jury is investigating a second computer services contract by the House Republican caucus, trying to determine if a multimillion-dollar database was used illegally for political purposes.

Investigators from the office of Attorney General Tom Corbett have questioned House employees about a contract with GCR & Associates, a computer consulting firm with offices in New Orleans and Birmingham, Ala., sources said.

The company received $9 million in state business from 2002 to this year for computer programming that provided detailed information on registered voters, their patterns and analyses.

The contract was taken out by then-Majority Leader John Perzel, R-Philadelphia.

During the same time period, the House Republican Campaign Committee paid GCR $73,000 for "database management" and Mr. Perzel's re-election committee paid $37,316 for "communications" and for in-kind contributions to other 2006 Republican House candidates.

Marty O'Rourke, spokesman for Mr. Perzel, did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.

The grand jury also is investigating a House Republican caucus contract with another firm, Aristotle Inc., for similar database services. The Aristotle contract included language that suggested it could be used for political campaigns.

The GCR state contract called for the creation of "jurisdictional management packages for GOP House districts," that included voter registration information and voting history.

The contract called for the firm to work with telephone vendors to "target desired voters and add supplemental demographic information where warranted."

A GCR spokesman did not return a telephone call requesting information about the contract.

The contract also required GCR to construct a statewide voter database as well as a computer application to serve the offices of GOP House members.

Such a database would not in itself be an illegal expenditure unless used for campaign purposes, and state investigators are trying to determine if the data were used in that way.

Steve Miskin, spokesman for Republican leader Sam Smith, R-Punxsutawney, said he is confident that the state-funded portions of GCR's work were not used for elections.

"I'm definitely not aware of any caucuswide scheme to use state resources for campaign purposes," he said.

Previously, state investigators questioned aides to Mr. Perzel about the contract with Aristotle Inc., a Washington, D.C., data firm.

Language in the Aristotle contract called for creation of a computer program to catalog voters down to their individual precincts and included an amendment requiring the firm to provide staff to enter data for use in elections.

That amendment, signed by J. Anthony Painter, then director of Republican information technologies and later an official with Aristotle, calls for each House district in Pennsylvania to be created as a database "populated by data provided by the caucus" and available to caucus staff.

"The caucus will provide the necessary staff to provide for the proper editing of the address lists for all districts so that all districts will be properly loaded and ready for use in the elections," the amendment said.