INDIANAPOLIS | Former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick is abdicating the Democratic National Committee post he has held for 32 years.

The eight-term mayor decided against seeking another Democratic National Committee term during a meeting of state party leaders earlier this month in French Lick, Pastrick said. His current term, and superdelegate status, will expire next week at the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

"You have to pay your own way, flying out (to the convention) and things, and I just reached the point where I can't afford it anymore," Pastrick said Friday. "It's time for me to retire. I've had a full life in government and politics. I started back in the early 1950s, and this is enough, really."

The Democratic National Committee post represents the last vestige of official power for a Democratic boss whose 33-year reign as mayor earned him the nickname "King of Steeltown." Pastrick, 80, lost the crown in 2004 when current Mayor George Pabey won a special election prompted by rampant absentee ballot fraud in the regular contest a year earlier.

The former mayor is now at the center of a civil racketeering lawsuit seeking to recoup $24 million in public money that went to pave driveways, patios and sidewalks for city voters in the run-up to the 1999 city elections. Pastrick was not charged in an ensuing federal criminal probe that snared a half-dozen city officials, and he claims he knew nothing of the sidewalks-for-votes plot until his own city paycheck bounced.

All three of Indiana's Democratic National Committee spots will feature new faces beginning Friday. Longtime Hoosier Democrat Phoebe Crane and Connie Thurman, a United Auto Workers political operative, also decided against seeking new four-year Democratic National Committee terms.

Ann Bochnowski, a former Indiana Gaming Commission member from Munster, is set to succeed Pastrick as the Democratic National Committee representative for northern Indiana. She could not be reached Friday for comment.

"She is very active within the party," Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker said of Bochnowski. "She is also a big supporter of both Senator (Evan) Bayh and Congressman (Pete) Visclosky. And she's going to be a great member of the DNC. She's looking forward to it."

The other new Indiana members of the Democratic National Committee are Maurice Davison, director of United Auto Workers Region 3, and Dean Boerste, principal and marketing director of Bernardin Lochmueller & Associates, an engineering firm with offices in Evansville, Indianapolis and West Lafayette. The new members are scheduled to be seated Friday in Denver during a meeting the morning after the close of the convention.