Bavaria, a conservative state that is key to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hopes of re-election this year, was awaiting details Friday on 79 out of 187 state legislators who wangled public-payroll jobs for their relatives.

The nepotism scandal has embarrassed Merkel’s Bavarian affiliate, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which has provided all of the southern state’s premiers since 1957.

Being on the list released Friday could derail many political careers.

While it remained unclear if the lawmakers broke the letter of the law, the perception of greed among legislators threatens to darken the mood of voters in a country where Merkel has so far profited from an attitude of “don’t change a winning team.”

The CSU caucus leader in Bavaria’s state assembly, Georg Schmid, resigned his leadership post last week after revelations that on top of his own parliamentary salary, a salary had been going to his wife for 23 years.

Most of the 79 are believed to be legislators for the CSU, but some belong to the opposition Social Democrats and Greens, who hope to tip the CSU and state Premier Horst Seehofer from power in state elections September 15, one week before federal elections.

Christian Ude, the Social Democratic lead candidate in the state poll and mayor of Munich, demanded the resignation of five ministers in Seehofer’s cabinet, saying they had employed their wives as office staff since 2000 when the practice was supposed to have been phased out.

Admitting that three of his own party had also been part of the abuse, Ude said, “This is a parliamentary crisis.”