HARRISBURG -- A day after one lawmaker called for House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese to resign from leadership, another urged him to bow out of the Legislature completely.

State Rep. David Levdansky, D-Forward, today asked Mr. DeWeese to "make the ultimate personal sacrifice" and withdraw his re-election bid.

Mr. DeWeese is mired in controversy stemming from an emerging government corruption investigation that, so far, has resulted in 12 arrests. Mr. DeWeese was not among those arrested and said he knew nothing of the alleged scheme to illegally divert government resources to political campaigns.

Some say Mr. DeWeese is a liability to caucus members as they stand for re-election in November.

Yesterday, Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Philadelphia, said Mr. DeWeese should step down as leader but stopped short of saying he should give up his House seat. That should be up to the voters in his district, Mr. Shapiro said yesterday.