HARRISBURG -- A House Democrat who has been a supporter of House Democratic leader H. William DeWeese called today for Mr. DeWeese to step down from his party caucus leadership post.

Rep. Josh Shapiro, a second-term House member from Montgomery County and the deputy speaker of the House, said Mr. DeWeese has lost all public confidence because of the dozen House Democrats or staff members charged in the Bonusgate scandal.

"It's beyond the time that we change the business-as-usual in Harrisburg,'' he told reporters today. "If these Bonusgate allegations are true, our state government is broken.''

He said Mr. DeWeese, who has represented Waynesburg in the Legislature for 30 years and has led House Democrats since 1993, should step down for five reasons:

• The alleged Bonusgate abuses "occurred on his watch,'' and even though Mr. DeWeese claims he knew nothing about them, he was still the leader when the bonuses were allegedly given out for political work in 2006.

• "We need a break from the past. We must enact real change for the people of Pennsylvania.''

• Even if he didn't know about the alleged Bonusgate abuses, "Bill DeWeese doesn't have the public's trust and we need leaders that do have that trust.''

• Apparently, no one in the Democratic caucus felt comfortable about telling Mr. DeWeese about the alleged abuses, which, according to a grand jury report, went on for months at a time.

• With Mr. DeWeese as House Democratic leader, Democrats will have a harder time widening their current one-vote margin of control of the House in what should be a Democratic year in Pennsylvania, with presidential candidate Barack Obama leading Republican John McCain in the polls.

In a separate development today, another Montgomery County Democrat, Rep. Rick Taylor, added his voice to the call for Mr. DeWeese to step down as caucus leader.

"He has become a lightning rod for controversy,'' said Mr. Taylor, who is at least the seventh Democrat to urge Mr. DeWeese to step down from leadership.

"We need to get back to the issues,'' he said. "Unfortunately this scandal has cast a cloud over our efforts to reform Harrisburg.''

So far, Democratic Reps. Harry Readshaw of Carrick and Matt Smith of Mt. Lebanon are also among those who want new House leadership.

There might be a House Democratic meeting, when legislators return to the Capitol in mid-September, to choose new leadership.