TIGARD — Republican Gordon Smith has tried just about everything as he asks voters in an increasingly Democratic state to send him back to Washington.

Smith isn’t just running away from President Bush in his bid for a third six-year term in the Senate. He’s practically leaping into the arms of Barack Obama and other Democrats.

His campaign ads tout his work with Obama as well as Massachusetts Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry on issues such as alternative energy and hate crimes. Above all, Smith clings to his fellow Oregon senator and close pal, Democrat Ron Wyden.

It’s not working very well in a year when the GOP brand — in Oregon and nationally — is in free fall. Smith’s seat is one of up to a dozen in the Senate that Democrats could take away from Republicans two weeks from now in what is still an uphill effort to put together a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority.

Asked how he counters a Democratic wave, Smith quipped, “I’m a big boy. I can take it. I’ll just learn how to surf.”

Wyden, who once answered phones in Smith’s Senate office and has long called him a partner, has asked Smith to take down a campaign commercial touting the pair’s longtime friendship and collaboration. Smith refused. Wyden also has appeared in a TV ad promoting Smith’s Democratic opponent, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley.

Polls show Merkley pulling ahead.

Merkley believes he’s gaining momentum not just because of the backlash in Oregon against Bush and Republicans, but also because the economy is faltering.

In campaign stops around the state, Merkley taps into that anti-GOP tide, telling crowds that Smith is a Bush Republican who’s more interested in bailing out Wall Street than helping folks on Main Street. Smith supported the recent $700 billion economic bailout, while Merkley and Wyden opposed it.

“If we don’t have living-wage jobs, we don’t have a middle class in this country,” Merkley said at a union rally at a pulp mill in Halsey. “We’re a nation of the few rich and the many poor struggling to gain traction. That’s not the vision of America I believe in.”

Democrats clearly see an opportunity. A surge of new registrations has brought the number of Democrats in the state to 43 percent, compared with 32 percent Republicans.

Democratic groups and the Merkley campaign have spent at least $15 million on Merkley’s behalf. Much of that money is from outside groups such as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, labor unions and liberal advocacy groups.

Republicans, meanwhile, have spent at least $22 million, including at least $12 million from outside groups such as the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the conservative Freedom’s Watch and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Smith, 56, said he believes Oregon voters will again endorse his record of working  with Wyden and other Democrats.

He also cites his seniority on key committees — including the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee. “Oregon gives that up if they tell me to go home,” he said.

Smith “has been a fairly popular senator,” said political scientist Melissa Buis Michaux of Willamette University in Salem. “I don’t get the sense there’s a lot of animosity against him personally. But it does seem to be a Democratic year, so he may be swept up in the winds of change.”

Democrats call Smith’s effort too little, too late. And they say his emphasis on his bipartisan record — including opposition to Alaska oil drilling — is misleading.

“You can’t be bipartisan and vote with Bush 90 percent of the time,” said Oregon Democratic Chairwoman Meredith Wood Smith (no relation). “It just doesn’t work.”