EAST CHICAGO | Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. is pushing to remove East Chicago Mayor George Pabey from his leadership of the city's Democratic precinct organization in the wake of Pabey's indictment on a public corruption charge.

McDermott, the Lake County Democratic chairman, said Tuesday morning, "I hope Mayor Pabey will step down. This is an important election cycle for Democrats, and George Pabey has bigger problems on his plate. He needs to worry about the criminal charges pending against him and voluntarily step aside."

Damian Rico, a spokesman for Pabey, said Tuesday that Pabey didn't have an immediate response to McDermott's call to step down, saying it was the first he had heard of it.

"He hasn't had any communication with Tom McDermott. He doesn't feel comfortable commenting on that," Rico said.

Political insiders sympathetic to Pabey, called McDermott's gambit a political power grab. McDermott and Pabey have been at odds for months. The two most recently backed rival candidates for county recorder, with McDermott's candidate, Michelle Fajman, winning over East Chicago City Councilwoman Myrna Maldonado, who Pabey had endorsed.

Pabey, 59, and city worker Jose A. Camacho, 52, were charged in a grand jury indictment last week with conspiring to embezzle city money and illegally use city workers to remodel the house Pabey bought with his daughter in Gary's Miller Beach neighborhood in December 2008.

Pabey has said he isn't guilty and has no plans to step down as mayor.

McDermott said Tuesday, "This is not about whether he is a good chairman, this has nothing to do about his job as mayor, this is about him having bigger things to worry about.

"Over the weekend, we were researching party rules to see if I had direct authority to remove a sitting chairman. I do not. But unless he voluntarily steps down, which is what we are asking, one third of the city's 36 precinct committeemen have to sign a petition calling for a hearing. We then have a hearing, and then two-thirds of the organization has to vote to remove him," he said.

McDermott said that even if the current precinct organization stands behind Pabey, the East Chicago mayor must face possible removal after the May 4 primary when a new slate of precinct committeemen is elected by the voters.

"If Pabey doesn't step aside by May, I will call for an election. I don't know if (Pabey) can make it through that."

If Pabey does step down temporarily, McDermott said he would run this city's organization in Pabey's absence. "I will fill vacancies and work with people to run fairly. If he clears his name, we will give it back to him a day later," McDermott said.