What might be called the language of ethical bipartisanship is quietly emerging as a trend in the contemporary Democratic Party.

The approach was on display in Governor Spitzer’s first week on the job, and it also made its way into an Op-Ed essay in the Washington Post by Senator Obama of Illinois, a likely presidential candidate.

Both candidates last week put forth similar measures intended to limit the influence of lobbyists on public servants.

Mr. Spitzer signed an executive order requiring that former state employees wait two years before being allowed to lobby any executive branch agency. In his State of the State speech, Mr. Spitzer said he was seeking to strengthen the state’s “‘revolving door’ law, which still allows legislative employees to immediately lobby their former colleagues.”

In his Op-Ed piece, Mr. Obama called on Congress to close “the revolving door to ensure that Capitol Hill service — whether as a member of Congress or as a staffer — isn’t all about lining up a high-paying lobbying job.”

Mr. Spitzer issued an order prohibiting at-will state employees from accepting any gifts of higher than nominal value. Mr. Obama called for “a full ban on gifts and meals,” an ethics guideline embraced by House Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, who passed a new set of ethics rules in one of their first acts since they gained a majority.

Taken together, the approaches may signal a new success strategy for a party that has had difficulty winning the White House — with the exception of the Clinton years — since President Reagan was elected in 1980.

Democrats who run to the left on policy issues, such as Howard Dean and Senator Kerry, are seen as unelectable or have had a hard time winning general elections, while Democrats who run to the center, such as Senator Lieberman of Connecticut, have fared poorly in Democratic primaries.

The language of ethical bipartisanship is different from the Clinton style of triangulation in that Mr. Clinton, aside from a short period after taking office in which he vowed to have the most “ethical administration in history,” never made ethics a political focus.

The strategy offers Messrs. Obama and Spitzer — both graduates of Harvard Law School who have had several conversations recently, according to a spokesman for Mr. Spitzer — a way to subtly differentiate themselves from another star on the Democratic scene, Senator Clinton.

“The same issues are relevant and both are trying to address them,” a spokesman for Mr. Obama, Tommy Vietor, said. He said Messrs Obama and Spitzer were not coordinating their efforts.

Mrs. Clinton, who skipped Mr. Spitzer’s inauguration and who could oppose Mr. Obama in the 2008 primary, has made her own attempts at bipartisanship as a senator, although many voters have yet to learn about that or see her as a figure adept at crossing party lines.

While Mrs. Clinton has been untainted by ethics scandals in her six years in the Senate, some voters associate her with some of the ethics scandals in her husband’s administration.

In addition, if Senator McCain of Arizona emerges as the Republican nominee, he has his own reputation for the language of ethical bipartisanship, having pioneered the practice with his Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which he co-sponsored with Senator Feingold, a Democrat of Wisconsin.

For each of the politicians, the bipartisan and ethical aspect of their strategy is somewhat different. Mr. Spitzer is taking office in Albany where six state lawmakers have been arrested or convicted on charges of corruption in the last three years, the state comptroller pleaded guilty to a felony and resigned to avoid a prison sentence, and the Republican leader of the Senate is the subject of a federal investigation into his outside business interests. Mr. Spitzer scored bipartisan points when he appointed a Republican state senator, Michael Balboni, to be his homeland security chief. Mr. Spitzer said in his State of the State speech that New Yorkers “have resoundingly rejected the status quo – the politics of partisanship and polarizing ideology.”

For Mr. Obama, his party is taking power in a Congress that has seen the resignation of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who was indicted in Texas, the resignation and imprisonment of Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a former Congressman from California.

Mr. Spitzer’s State of the State speech was titled “One New York,” while Mr. Obama’s 2004 Democratic National Convention speech is often referred to as “One America.” Both politicians have criticized what they called the “politics of cynicism.”

“He talked about America, not party,” said John Decker of Stratham, N.H., after a recent appearance by Mr. Obama in the Granite State.

Whether ethical bipartisanship can win the White House remains to be seen. Senator McCain met a bruising defeat in the 2000 Republican primary and will face formidable opposition from Governor Romney and Mayor Giuliani this time around.

The strategy also carries with it some risks; a candidate campaigning on ethics who gets caught in an ethics scandal runs the risk of being tagged as a hypocrite or a phony.

But neither Messrs. Obama nor McCain succeed in using the language of ethical bipartisanship to make it to the White House in 2008, then don’t rule out Mr. Spitzer having his own try at it in 2012 or 2016.