SUNRIVER -- Top Oregon Democrats met here this weekend to fire up volunteers and plot strategy for what they acknowledge is an unpredictable election year that could test the party's dominance in the state.

2012 is shaping up to be "unlike any election year I've ever seen," said state Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, who joined some 400 party activists at the

After 2006 and 2008 elections that swung heavily toward the Democrats and swept Barack Obama into the presidency, Republicans surfed a big wave in their direction in 2010.

Now Buckley and other Democrats say they don't know if voters upset by the country's continuing economic woes will take it out on Obama, on the new Republican leadership in the House -- or both -- and how that will play in Oregon.

An early test will come Jan. 31 when a special election in the state's 1st Congressional District for the seat vacated by Democrat David Wu, who resigned in August following a sex scandal.

While the district has been held by Democrats for nearly four decades and routinely votes Democratic in presidential races, it is widely expected that Republicans will spend heavily in an attempt to pick the seat off.

Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., said he was confident Democrats can retain the Northwest Oregon district. But, Schrader warned, if Democrats don't win the seat, it will be an omen that "we're gone nationally."

Trent Lutz, the party's executive director, said a big factor in the Jan. 31 special election will be turnout. He said the party will gear up its get-out-the-vote operation as a kind of trial run for the general election in November, as it did for the January 2010 special election when voters approved the Measures 66 and 67 tax increases on corporations and wealthier individuals.

Voter turnout was a big topic at the summit. Stacey Dycus, a Democratic political consultant, said she was worried many people who voted for Obama in 2008 might sit out the 2012 elections as they did in 2010.

"People voted for change in 2008 and now they feel discouraged," she said, fretting that too many voters will let their ballots sit unopened among their bills and other mail.

Still, Democrats generally feel they do better in presidential years when interest levels are higher and younger people in particular are more likely to vote. Several Democrats noted that Obama remains more popular in Oregon than he is nationally, and House Democratic Leader Tina Kotek of Portland said that the Obama campaign has raised enough money to assure that it can help fund get-out-the-vote efforts in Oregon.

That national aid could be important since there won't be any U.S. Senate or gubernatorial race in Oregon next year to help pay such efforts and raise voter interest.

Instead, much of the attention from political insiders will be focused on the battle for control of the state Legislature. After losing six House seats and two Senate seats in the last election, Democrats now have a narrow 16-14 majority in the Senate and are tied with Republicans in the House.

Gov. John Kitzhaber told attendees he would campaign for Democrats in the election and he said in an interview that he would try to help his party gain full control of both houses.

At the same time, he said he's met with House Co-speakers Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, and Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, to say that he hoped the two sides could continue their spirit of cooperation no matter how the elections turn out.