WASHINGTON — Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith said Friday that Democrat Jeff Merkley is breaking the law by continuing to appear in campaign ads paid for by the state Democratic Party.

“I think lawmakers should not be lawbreakers,” Smith said.

“I expected a spirited campaign from Jeff Merkley. I did not expect him to be so flagrant in violating the law,” Smith told The Associated Press.

Smith, a Republican, said Merkley was “putting political expediency ahead of his own integrity and the intelligence of Oregon voters.”

Merkley has appeared in three TV ads talking about his record on crime, veterans issues and taxes. His campaign has said the ads are not intended to help him get elected. A spokesman Friday called Smith’s comments “the height of desperation.”

Smith has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, charging that Merkley and state Democrats are trying to circumvent federal law to give Merkley more money for advertising.

Merkley, the Oregon House speaker, had about $569,000 in the bank at the end of June — far below the $4.5 million cash on hand reported by Smith. In all, Merkley has raised about $2.8 million for the campaign to $9.7 million for Smith.

Smith said the party-paid ads are thinly disguised efforts to skirt campaign finance laws allowing so-called “issue” ads that do not advocate the defeat or election of a specific candidate. In that way, Merkley can receive virtually unlimited help from the state party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which helps Democratic Senate candidates across the country.

Democrats say Merkley appears in the ads merely as a party spokesman— a claim Smith called “an assault on reason” and an insult to the intelligence of Oregon voters.

“Obviously they think they can get away with breaking the law, and the people of Oregon will not notice,” Smith said. “I think the people of Oregon deserve better than the Merkley campaign is showing.”

Smith called the dispute more than a technicality over who is paying for campaign ads.

“At the core this a question of character — Jeff Merkley’s character — and he is choosing the violate the spirit and the letter of the law.”

Merkley spokesman Matt Canter called Smith’s comments desperate.

Smith’s “legal claims are frivolous, and his political gamesmanship deceptive,” Canter said.

Canter accused Smith of running the most negative Senate campaign in the country and said Smith was the first Republican incumbent to air negative ads about a Democratic opponent — including ads that aired before Oregon’s May 20 primary.

“The Democratic party is running advertisements on issues that are important the people of Oregon,” and Merkley is a spokesman for the party, Canter said.