HARRISBURG -- John Perzel, a maitre d' plucked from tableside at a Philadelphia restaurant and launched on a career that would make him the chief diner at the table of power, yesterday reached his nadir in a long decline born of a controversial pay raise and a bare-knuckle style that alienated colleagues and ultimately drew the eyes of a grand jury.

Charged yesterday on multiple counts of corruption after a yearlong investigation into the use of state money for political campaigns, Mr. Perzel's political power, already halted by demotion from the Republican leadership, seemed more political history than current events.

The 15-term Republican lawmaker from the working-class wards of northeast Philadelphia was among 10 people charged. Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett led the investigation.

Prosecutors say Mr. Perzel, a former House speaker, was the kingpin in a conspiracy to direct some $10 million in public funds to technology firms that created databases used to run political campaigns. Prosecutors say he later participated in a second conspiracy to conceal records agents were seeking in their corruption investigation.

Now he is the highest-ranking legislative official in Pennsylvania to be charged with a crime since the 1977 federal indictment of former Speaker Herb Fineman, who subsequently was convicted of obstruction of justice.

Mr. Perzel is an aggressive politician known to demand obedience and loyalty from staffers who he allegedly directed to do campaign work on state time. He used their labor along with taxpayer money to build databases that could be used for campaign work and sometimes, Mr. Corbett said, to attack political rivals even within his own party. At least a dozen times Mr. Perzel used taxpayer-funded technology to make anonymous automated phone calls with damaging messages about state Reps. Will Gabig, R-Cumberland, and Curt Schroder, R-Chester, according to Mr. Corbett.

That isn't the first time Mr. Perzel has been accused of dirty politics against Mr. Schroder.

A year ago, a former campaign operative told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he had been paid to dig up dirt on Mr. Perzel's rivals for caucus leadership positions, including Mr. Schroder. Mr. Perzel denied that accusation.

Mr. Perzel's ruthless political practices have their roots in a 2000 election that nearly cost him his House seat, Mr. Corbett said.

After that, he "put everyone on notice that everything possible would be done to prevent another close election," according to the grand jury presentment issued yesterday. He put a cadre of campaign staffers on the state payroll and hired his brother-in-law to supervise them, according to the presentment.

Mr. Perzel had always been interested in the use of technology for campaigns, but 2000 was when he made it a priority, traveling to many different technology conventions and purchasing equipment such as handheld devices that could be used to instantly update voter information during door-to-door campaign efforts.

Mr. Perzel retained his seat, but many colleagues were ousted from office in 2006 by voters angry about pay raises lawmakers had voted themselves at Mr. Perzel's urging. Republicans lost the majority in the House and Mr. Perzel was demoted from speaker to a rank-and-file member who seldom participates in floor debate and rarely is consulted about high-level decisions.

As a consolation, he was made minority chairman of the House Urban Affairs Committee, but now he must give up that post, too. House rules prevent members from serving as committee chairmen after they've been charged with a crime.

At one time, Mr. Perzel controlled every major piece of legislation that worked its way through the Capitol. Observers called him the most powerful speaker in modern Pennsylvania history.

"There's no doubt he is the major player in the Legislature," pollster Terry Madonna told the Post-Gazette in a 2005 interview. "All things end with him," said Mr. Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College.

His withdrawal from power circles was unforeseen by pundits including Mr. Madonna, who early on predicted Mr. Perzel would emerge unscathed from the pay-raise debacle.

Mr. Perzel's back-story reads like a Horatio Alger novel. Philadelphia's Republican Party boss, Billy Meehan, plucked him out of Pavio's Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, where a 20-something Perzel worked as a maitre d' and became known for concocting flaming desserts tableside.

Mr. Meehan, a regular at Pavio's, soon recognized that Mr. Perzel's talents were more than culinary. He was smart, hard-working and articulate, said Michael Meehan, a Philadelphia lawyer who took over as party leader after his father died in 1994.

Soon Mr. Perzel was on the campaign trail, knocking door to door, as he does every election cycle. He drew upon his restaurant friends for help. Pavio's hosted fundraisers in that first campaign to represent Philadelphia's District 172 in the state House. Waiters and waitresses became campaign volunteers.

He lost his first election but in 1978 defeated incumbent Francis Gleeson and has held the district ever since.

Mr. Perzel had skipped the usual first step of politicians with high aspirations by never serving in a local elected office.

In the House, he served as Republican whip, Policy Committee chairman and head of the House Republican Campaign Committee before his election to majority leader in 1995. Eight years later, he rose to speaker, succeeding the affable Matthew Ryan, who died in office.

As speaker, Mr. Perzel was a rough-and-tumble Philadelphia politician, a sharp contrast to his mild-mannered predecessor.

Colleagues and staffers describe him as an old-fashioned committeeman who believes in back-door politics and door-to-door campaigning. They say he is arrogant, sarcastic, astute, calculating, self-important and, at times, crude. What made him successful was his ability to understand what people want and to forge compromises that left everyone feeling like a winner.

"He's been a masterful politician in the seven years I've known him all the way up until the pay-raise fiasco," state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, told the Post-Gazette in 2005. "The only time I ever really saw him come apart was on the pay-raise issue, but that's because it was flawed from the beginning. He made a lot of miscalculations."

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