As Democrats mull when and how to introduce an election-year agenda, some party leaders have already begun to broaden the now-familiar Democratic refrain of a “culture of corruption, cronyism, incompetence and cover-up” to add a new alliterative element: costs.

The shift in language reflects some frustration among Democrats that their steady drumbeat on corruption isn’t connecting with voters as much as they’d like.

The new phrase allows them to segue from ethical abuses to pocketbook issues such as prescriptions drugs, energy prices and tuition costs, where they contend that Republicans have fallen under the sway of industry lobbyists and rewarded special interests to the detriment of average voters.

“There is a very focused determination [to] educate the public … that this isn’t just some inside-the-Beltway thing but that it has a direct relationship to their lives,” a House Democratic leadership aide said. “I think we’ve recognized the need to do this for a while, but we are clearly now making the very aggressive transition.”