WASHINGTON  The number of ethics cases launched in Congress has jumped dramatically in the past year, putting a focus on allegations of misconduct by lawmakers heading into November's elections.

Despite the specter of public ethics trials for veteran Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of California, lawmakers have escaped serious punishment.

"Just because there is a brouhaha about the Rangel and Waters cases doesn't mean the ethics committee is doing a good job," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "It's great that they are handling Rangel and Waters, but it doesn't excuse them for what they haven't taken up."

In the first six months of this year, an independent congressional watchdog began 44 ethics investigations, up from 24 during the same period in 2009. The Office of Congressional Ethics has recommended that the House ethics committee take action against 13 lawmakers.

Only one, Rangel, has been admonished by the committee to date — for accepting corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean. Separately, he awaits an ethics hearing on 13 other charges.

The congressional ethics office can investigate lawmakers, but the power to take disciplinary action rests with the House ethics committee.

Rangel and Waters have launched rare public battles that will drag into the fall and offer a high-profile test of Congress' ability to police its members. The last public ethics trial in the House came in 2002 when a defiant Jim Traficant was expelled from Congress after the Ohio Democrat's conviction for bribery and tax evasion.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has maintained that the increased activity demonstrates that ethics rules, implemented when Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, are working.

"The bipartisan, independent process is moving forward so that we ensure that the highest ethical standards are upheld in the House," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said.

Three months away from midterm elections, "the prospect of two ethics trials in the fall is terrible news for Democrats," said Nathan Gonzales of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. "Voters are already prepared to believe the worst about Washington, and this only feeds voters' perceptions that people in Washington are only looking out for themselves."

Among the 13 charges against Rangel are allegations that he improperly solicited donations from companies with business before his tax-writing committee to help fund a public center bearing his name. Waters, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, faces allegations that she intervened with federal officials on behalf of a bank in which her husband owns stock.

Each has denied wrongdoing. In a lengthy speech Tuesday, Rangel acknowledged that his case might prove thorny for Democrats in November, but he said, "You're not going to tell me to resign to make you feel comfortable."

At a news conference Friday, Waters declared her innocence and said "I won't cut a deal" with the ethics committee.

Waters has questioned whether race has played a role in her case.

Rangel and Waters are black, and records show that eight of the 13 cases in which the Office of Congressional Ethics urged the House ethics committee to act involved African-American lawmakers.

"African Americans are the only ones who they move further with investigation on," Waters said last week on The Tom Joyner Morning Show, a syndicated radio program.

Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who chairs the House ethics panel, declined to comment.

Jon Steinman of the Office of Congressional Ethics denied any racial bias.

"Our investigations are exclusively evidence-based," he said. "Party, race, gender and seniority never play any role."

The ethics office's board, which must vote to move forward on any investigation, is made up of Republicans and Democrats. One, former congresswoman Yvonne Burke, is a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation watchdog group called the new ethics activity a good sign. "Calling these two very powerful members of Congress to task," she said, "is a warning shot across the bow for other members."