INDIANAPOLIS | State Sen. Sam Smith, D-East Chicago, said he is resigning to focus on an expansion of his family's funeral home and wants his wife to serve the remaining 18 months of his term.

A senator since 1998, Smith faced a potential re-election roadblock next year. He pleaded guilty to tax evasion for failing to pay sales tax on his East Chicago funeral home in 2004. And a state law approved a year later prohibits those charged with a felony but convicted of a misdemeanor, as Smith was, from seeking public office.

He is asking fellow Democrats to select his wife, Diane Smith, to complete the remaining 18 months of his term.

"I was going to run and let the chips fall where they may," Smith said Monday. "This (resignation) was all based on me getting the larger (funeral home)."

Smith said his resignation is effective Wednesday.

Smith said his Divinity Funeral Home will roughly triple in size after he moves to a different facility. A funeral director by trade, Smith said he plans to devote himself solely to the family business, freeing up his wife to serve in the part-time Legislature.

Smith was a political newcomer when he took over the Senate District 2 seat that Lonnie Randolph left to become an East Chicago judge. But Smith could have a hard time persuading fellow Democrats to appoint his wife.

"At first -- when he said that -- I didn't think he was serious," said Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, chairman of the Lake County Democratic Party.

Clay asked state Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, to consider a move to the Senate, where Republicans hold a 33-17 stranglehold. Rep. Smith said he declined, explaining he prefers to stay in the House, where Democrats hold a slim majority.

Clay has 30 days to call a caucus of Democratic precinct officials to select Smith's replacement in Senate District 2.

Senate District 2 covers all of East Chicago, a large western section of Gary, and parts of Griffith, Hammond, Highland, Merrillville and Schererville.