Seven months before the November midterm elections, the Democrats are awash in ethics and corruption scandals in Congress and among the nation’s biggest governorships.

The major networks’ nightly news shows have largely ignored or played down the mounting allegations, charges and investigations targeting Democrats, but they are becoming a major issue in key campaigns that could help the Republicans make large gains in the House, Senate and state capitals.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged the Democrats would “drain the swamp” of corruption” in Washington when she and her party took control of the chamber, but much of the available evidence shows that, if anything, the Democrats’ ethical record is noticeably worse.  In many cases involving Democrats, investigations into wrongdoing have been swept under the rug or slowed to a snail’s pace and penalties have been just a slap on the wrist.

“Instead of draining the swamp of corruption in Washington as Pelosi promised, Democrats are now swimming neck-deep in it,” said Brian Walsh, chief spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

“Whether it’s powerful committee chairs flouting tax laws, rampant earmark abuse, or a Senate nominee in Illinois who was a former banker to the mob, this isn’t change any American can believe in.  Republicans will be running on returning accountability and checks and balances to Washington this November, and we are intent on earning back the trust of the American people while the Democrats continue to flout it,” Walsh told HUMAN EVENTS.

The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, known as the House ethics committee, has more than half a dozen investigations pending into Democratic wrongdoing on everything from tax evasion to trading pork-barrel projects for campaign contributions.

At the same time, the independent, outside Office of Congressional Ethics, created in 2008 and headed by former Justice Department attorney Leo J. Wise, who won convictions against Enron executives, reports that 36 House members were under investigation, the most in more than a decade.