Democratic candidates across the spectrum are returning to a familiar attack this year: linking their opponents to President Bush.

Just as Republicans have begun to use Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in ads, their opponents have returned to the tactic they used to great effect in 2006.

Last week, after Bush attended a fundraiser for Connecticut Republicans, state Democrats touted photos of Bush hand in hand with Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) after exiting Air Force One.

Democrats believe such tactics will be effective as the president’s approval ratings average 30 percent.

“I think that the citizens of the district face a set of problems that have been getting worse, not better over time,” said Greenwich Democratic Chairman Jim Himes, a Shays challenger. “They’re not going to get those new and fresh ideas from somebody who has sat by while those problems got worse.”

It’s also a maneuver Democrats aren’t afraid to use against their own. Two years ago, Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont pointed to the president’s 2005 State of the Union kiss of his primary opponent, then-Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.). “The Kiss” helped Lamont win the party’s nomination, although Lieberman retained the seat as an independent.

This cycle Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) called his primary challenger, Rep. Rob Andrews, a Bush “cheerleader” in a press release Thursday. He noted Andrews said in 2003 that the Iraq war was “winding down.”

Poll numbers give credence to that type of approach. In a new NBC/Wall Street Journal survey released Wednesday, 43 percent of respondents thought that McCain’s consistent voting record with Bush’s agenda was a major concern.

Republicans have responded to the Democrats’ tactics by saying Bush won’t be on the November ballot.

McCain, when asked Thursday about Bush’s impact, distanced himself from some of the president’s policies, noting that he disagreed with Bush over the conduct of the Iraq war prior to the military surge and on government measures to address climate change.

“I really believe that at the end of the day the American people are going to judge me on what they think I will be as president of the United States, not on anybody else,” McCain said on MSNBC.

He added that Congress’s approval ratings are even lower than Bush’s. A RealClearPolitics poll average puts that number at about 22 percent.

Democrats have argued the ties between Bush, McCain and other Republicans are harmful since they share policies on Iraq and the economy. They note the president and GOP candidates oppose a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and support making tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.

“[O]n those fundamental issues, McCain is going to be a continuation of George Bush,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), head of the House Democrats’ campaign effort.

For his part, Bush hasn’t shied away from helping Republicans. He’s appeared at 10 Republican National Committee (RNC) fundraisers.

“He wants the party to be strong, he wants us to have a strong ticket on the ballot and he wants Sen. McCain to be elected,” RNC Chairman Mike Duncan told The Hill last month.

That doesn’t mean that all candidates will appear with the president. At a Connecticut fundraiser last week for state Sen. David Cappiello, the GOP challenger to Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cappiello didn’t appear publicly with Bush.

Cappiello spokesman Adam Bauer called Bush an “asset” and mentioned the president came midway through the event, after Cappiello had arrived. Bauer also dismissed arguments that a Bush association is harmful.

“It is intellectually dishonest on anyone’s side to play this association game, to say ‘You’re from the same party, you’re probably just like him,’” Bauer said. “I think the voters are smarter than that.”