TIGARD, Ore. -- At a farmers market here, Jeff Merkley stops to chat with several women. He tells them the U.S. needs "an energy policy that will provide a foundation for the future."

AP photo

"We need more transparent commodity marketing," he adds.

The women politely nod and smile back at him.

This is Jeff Merkley in full policy-wonk mode. As he campaigns for the U.S. Senate, it may resonate with some people, and not with others.

But that may not matter, as he tries to dislodge the GOP incumbent, Gordon Smith.

At this time a year ago, Merkley looked to be a long-shot against the better-known, better-funded incumbent senator. And Merkley was far from being the first choice of national Democrats who were looking for someone to take on Smith.

 More: Merkley Biography

 More: Smith touts bipartisan record

And yet, Merkley, through sheer determination, lots of pounding the pavement and a ton of financial help from the national Democrats, has pulled even with Smith in the polls and could well become Oregon's next U.S. senator.

Merkley has the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time. The political standing of President Bush and the Republican Party in general has hit rock bottom in Oregon, and Democratic voter registration is soaring in this state.

In his 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.

"If we don't have living-wage jobs, we don't have a middle class in this country," Merkley said during 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."

Merkley makes the case that he's ready for a promotion to the U.S. Senate. He cites his leadership as Oregon House speaker, presiding over a 2007 session that approved domestic partnerships for gay couples, cracked down on predatory payday and car title lenders, and established the state's first rainy day fund.

The 51-year-old Portland Democrat has doggedly pursued the Senate seat throughout the year, beginning a "100 towns for change" tour in June in Myrtle Creek, the southern Oregon timber town where he was born.

Merkley is policy-driven during these stops. That's not surprising, given that he received a master's degree in public policy from Princeton Education and a bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford University. In the mid-1980s, Merkley worked as a national security analyst for the Pentagon and the Congressional Budget Office.

Portland activist Steve Novick, who ran against Merkley in the May Democratic Senate primary, says Merkley doesn't need to develop the personality of a game-show host to win the Senate seat.

In fact, Novick said, Merkley should play up the idea that he doesn't settle for pat answers to complicated problems and that he likes to delve deeply into issues.

"Jeff Merkley might not be the life of the party, but he will always do his homework," Novick said. "If I were Jeff, I would say, `This is a contest between an earnest, hardworking guy and a guy who plays a lot of golf.' "

While being a wonk is part of Merkley's persona, he also has a reputation as a fierce fighter when it comes to promoting the Democratic Party's agenda in the Legislature.

First elected to the Oregon House in 1998, Merkley served as House minority leader from 2003 to 2006, and was credited with leading Democrats into a slim 31-29 majority in the 2006 election.

As his reward he was elected speaker of the House in January 2007, marking the first time that Democrats were in control of both chambers of the Legislature in 16 years.

Merkley used that position to push through an ambitious agenda that many observers said made the 2007 session the most sweeping in a generation.

Besides enactment of domestic partnerships, a rainy day fund and a crackdown on payday lenders, Merkley also pushed through an overhaul of Oregon ethics laws, a cigarette tax to pay for children's health and a scaling back of Oregon's 2004 property compensation law.

Many of those measures passed over stiff opposition from Republicans, who complained that Merkley and the Democrats tried to stifle the GOP's voice during the session.

House Minority Leader Bruce Hanna of Roseburg has tangled with Merkley on more than one occasion.

"On a personal level, he's always been polite to me. He's the kind of guy who always shakes your hand, smiles, and asks about your kids," Hanna said. "But at the same time, he tried to silence the voice of our members."

If there was ever any doubt that Merkley burns with political ambition, it was laid to rest in June 2007. That was when the Portland Democrat surprised everyone by confirming that he was seriously thinking of running for the U.S. Senate.

That came after three better-known Democrats -- Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio and former Gov. John Kitzhaber -- looked at running against the well-financed Smith and said, `no thanks.' "

At the urging of national Democrats, Merkley formally announced in August 2007 that he would make the run against Smith.

As Election Year 2008 dawned, Merkley narrowly escaped injury when a car he was riding in on his way to a campaign event rolled over on U.S. Highway 20 west of Sisters. It seemed to some an ill omen for a tough year ahead for Merkley.

However, since winning a tough Democratic primary contest with Novick in May, Merkley has been on an upward trend in the polls, fueled in part by the millions of dollars that national Democrats have dedicated to running TV ads in the Oregon race.

This past week, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, pronounced himself pleased with Merkley's standing as the campaign season enters its final weeks.

"His campaign started clicking, really, this summer," Schumer said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

There have been a few low points along the road for Merkley.

Merkley becomes visibly angry when he discusses Smith's TV ad featuring a rape victim accusing Merkley, as a legislator, of failing to crack down on serious sex offenders. Merkley says he's backed tougher laws against sex crimes and that Smith "cherry-picked" one vote to use in the ad.

"I had to sit down with my children and prepare them in case other children asked them about these ads. It's something no father should have to do," said Merkley, who has two children.

Merkley also stumbled a bit when he made the rookie mistake of continuing to eat a hot dog while a GOP tracker videotaped him giving a muffed response to a question about Russia's invasion of Georgia.

The national Republicans have used the videotape in TV ads mocking Merkley and criticizing him on the issues.

During his recent campaign stop in Tigard, several voters asked Merkley about the ad.

"I was in the middle of eating a hot dog, and the tracker caught me in an unflattering situation," Merkley said with a slight shrug.

Not to worry, said Dr. Veronica Esaqui, a Tigard physician.

"The ad made me angry at Smith," Esaqui told Merkley. "What do they have -- a paparrazi watching a guy eat his food? It actually made me want to support you."