HARRISBURG -- For 30 years, state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, a sharp-tongued Democratic power broker from south Philadelphia, has either been loved or loathed at the state Capitol.

It's hard to stay neutral about a guy who often lets his emotions loose and his opinions fly, who isn't afraid to criticize politicians of either party and who has maintained a tough exterior in the face of 139 charges of public corruption filed last year by a U.S. attorney in Philadelphia.

Mr. Fumo, 64, who also has suffered serious health problems recently -- including a heart attack last week and two back surgeries in the last few months -- announced yesterday he is withdrawing from a four-way Democratic primary April 22. He'll close out his long Senate career at the end of the current term Nov. 30.

With Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell at his side, Mr. Fumo told a news conference in Philadelphia yesterday that his health problems aren't the reason he's retiring. The serious criminal charges against him, he said, have left "a cloud hanging over my head."

"I simply do not think it's right to ask the voters who have put their faith in me all these years to consider voting for me one more time" while such charges are pending, he said.

"The situation I find myself in makes it difficult for my voice to be heard above the constant chatter about my upcoming trial."

He is charged with defrauding the state Senate, a Philadelphia seaport museum and a nonprofit group by using state-paid staff and assets for his personal and political needs. Mr. Fumo has maintained his innocence and is due to go to trial in September.

Mr. Rendell, a former Philadelphia mayor, said of Mr. Fumo: "No one is 100 percent good and no one is 100 percent bad. The balance tips greatly toward the great work Vince Fumo has done."

Mr. Fumo, nicknamed "Vince the Prince," is a banker and lawyer and was first elected to the Senate in 1978. He was strikingly frank for a legislator, most of whom won't publicly criticize colleagues because they might need their votes the next week. Some said he could afford to be frank because he was always safely re-elected in his South Philly district.

In a 2002 Philadelphia Daily News interview, columnist John Baer asked Mr. Fumo's opinion of former Republican governor and then-Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge. Mr. Fumo called him "a buffoon ... an empty suit -- a good-looking empty suit."

In 1996, during a battle with Senate Republicans over welfare reform, Mr. Fumo claimed the GOP was "like a panzer division, a bunch of little Nazis out there running the welfare bill right through."

Critics said Mr. Fumo certainly wasn't short on nerve. They note that he is now asking $6 million for his 27-room Philadelphia house, which he bought in 1994 for $175,000. Until yesterday, the mansion had been assessed for tax purposes at $250,000. City officials have now bumped that figure up to $1 million.

But even politicians with whom he's clashed over the years expect a big hole in the Legislature when Mr. Fumo bows out.

Vincent Carocci, a retired Harrisburg journalist and ex-staffer to Gov. Bob Casey, called Mr. Fumo "a player from the day he set foot" in the Legislature.

"He is tireless in his efforts to secure more -- more of anything ... money, jobs, whatever -- for his city," Mr. Carocci wrote in his 2005 book "A Capitol Journey." "He is very helpful to his friends; and he constantly bedevils his rivals."

Larry Ceisler, a Democratic political consultant who grew up in Washington County but now works in Philadelphia, said, "I've been on the opposite side from Sen. Fumo in some political battles. But it was always better to be on the same side he was than to be against him."

Mr. Ceisler now works for powerful Philadelphia union leader John Dougherty, who is one of three candidates left in the April 22 Senate primary. Yet Mr. Ceisler said the loss of Mr. Fumo will be "a real loss for Philadelphia. He was a master of the appropriations process."

Mr. Fumo was the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee for years until he stepped down after the federal charges were lodged.

He helped get state funding for the $400 million Pennsylvania Convention Center, which opened in Philadelphia in 1993 and is now being expanded with state funds. He also worked on funding for new stadiums for the Phillies and Eagles.

When Mr. Rendell became governor in 2003, he and Mr. Fumo, along with then-House Speaker John Perzel, a Republican, formed a powerful Philadelphia triumvirate at the Capitol.

Mr. Perzel and Mr. Fumo often competed for influence in Philly and Harrisburg.

In an unguarded moment in 2003, Mr. Perzel snapped to a Philadelphia reporter that Mr. Fumo was "a vindictive [expletive]. It's all about hating and hurting people."

Another powerful Republican with whom Mr. Fumo crossed swords was former Senate President Pro Tem Bob Jubelirer of Altoona. One night in October 2004, Mr. Fumo lost his temper, rushed across the Senate floor and confronted Mr. Jubelirer over an issue.

According to a reporter who was in the chamber, Mr. Fumo used a homosexual slur several times to describe Mr. Jubelirer.

Mr. Fumo apologized to Mr. Jubelirer and also to the Philadelphia gay community, which is a potent political force. He said he wasn't prejudiced against gays and had a good voting record on issues important to the gay community.

"I lost my temper in the heat of the moment ... and said something I deeply regret,'' he said.

Mr. Jubelirer said in an interview yesterday that he had many clashes with Mr. Fumo over the years, and yet "We remained friends. There were chilly times but I tried not to carry a grudge. Vince was a legend. He fought tooth and nail on Philadelphia issues, but he wanted to have his own way all the time."

Mr. Fumo's most prominent legislative legacy is the July 2004 slot machine law, which legalized 14 casinos in the state and is close to providing $1 billion in property tax relief to Pennsylvania homeowners.

Mr. Fumo also played a key role last summer in getting Act 44, the nearly $1 billion-a-year transportation improvement bill, enacted.

If the Interstate 80 tolls it calls for are approved by the federal government, Act 44 will pay for repairs to hundreds of highways and bridges around the state and help financially ailing mass transit agencies, mainly SEPTA in Philadelphia and the Allegheny County Port Authority.

Mr. Fumo has helped get much of the Rendell agenda passed over five years, including a statewide economic stimulus plan in 2003. He also pressed for the increase in the minimum wage enacted last year.

Lately, though, he is better known for his federal indictment on accusations that he misused $1 million in state resources by using his legislative staff to oversee construction on his Philadelphia mansion, work on his Dauphin County farm and spy on his ex-wife.

He also is accused of misusing $1 million from the Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, a nonprofit group he controlled in Philadelphia. He allegedly used the group to covertly fund political polling and to pay for vehicles, farm equipment and trips.