And Patrick has also laid out a new line of attack that's really an old one, worn well during his long-shot 2006 bid and proven trusty over decades by Bay State gubernatorial candidates: trying to claim status as the choice least cozy with Beacon Hill.

In a web video hailing President Barack Obama's fundraising visit Oct. 23 for Patrick's reelection, the governor said his opponents would try to move Massachusetts back, an unsurprising diagnosis from the sole self-identified progressive in the race.

Then he went further, charging that his challengers - whom he did not name, but who to this point include unenrolled Treasurer Timothy Cahill, and Republicans Charles Baker and Christy Mihos - also wanted to let the insiders and well-connected make the decisions for all the rest of us.

A storm-the-ramparts strategy - fueled by his résumé, biography, and a grassroots connectivity that surprised political handicappers - helped Patrick conquer a more seasoned Democratic primary field and a sitting GOP lieutenant governor three years ago. Now, after accruing scar tissue advocating a legislative agenda often at odds with the majority-Democrat Legislature, the governor is attempting to resurrect the campaign pitch that paints his opponents as linked to the same Big Dig culture he ran against in 2006.

Critics call it a tough sell, pointing to an inner circle lined with longtime state government figures and a string of controversial appointments.

You mean, like Marian Walsh and Jim Aloisi? Baker asked rhetorically, referring to two State House insiders and Patrick allies the governor tapped for key positions - Walsh, a West Roxbury state senator whose appointment to a long-vacant, $175,000 job at a state agency was ultimately pulled back, and Aloisi, a longtime state government veteran and lobbyist who helped Patrick pass a transportation reform bill before resigning amid acrimonious relationships with lawmakers.

The governor's been in charge for almost three years now and there's very little reform on Beacon Hill, Baker said in a telephone interview. Two years in a row, we've had significant tax increases.

Patrick's campaign, which the economy has drained of much of the expanded services and property tax relief potential he rode into office, is likely to tout the transportation, ethics and campaign finance, and pension loophole reform bills that cleared the Legislature this year. And, while his oft-troubled interactions with the Legislature have frustrated many of his policy goals, analysts said the appearance that Patrick does not get on well with legislative Democrats could prove helpful among voters.

The real question, said Michael Goldman, an informal Patrick adviser, is does the public perceive him to be part of the institution of the State House? [Former Democratic governor] Michael Dukakis was never perceived to be a State House guy, if you will, because people never presumed him to be part of the institution.

In politics, it is never what is real that is important, but what is perceived to be, Goldman said.

John Berg, chairman of the government studies department at Suffolk University, said, In his case, you probably can [run as an outsider], because that's his weakness, too, is that he's not been particularly successful at dealing with the Legislature. The strength of that weakness is that he can run as an outsider, because he's had plenty of clashes with the Legislature.

One Patrick backer in the Legislature echoed Berg.

Is he going to be able to run as an outsider again? Yes and no, said Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, the Jamaica Plain Democrat who co-chairs the Public Health Committee. Look at how some of the folks have reacted here in the building with regards to him. I think some of the members have expressed their dismay and concern with him. That's enough for him to run with the credential as an outsider. At the same time, are they going to let him get anything done, with what's remaining in this session and also if he makes it in a second time?

Patrick had high-profile battles shortly after he took office with then-Speaker Salvatore DiMasi over corporate and local taxes and, last year, over casinos. After DiMasi, who has since been indicted on public corruption charges he has denied, left in January, Patrick ran into turbulence with Senate President Therese Murray during the debate over transportation funding, when Murray said Patrick was kind of making himself irrelevant.

There have been smaller skirmishes, as well, Patrick skewering lawmakers for their pace of deliberation, and angering many legislators with what they see as his sustained campaigning against fellow Democrats.

Joyce Ferriabough, a Boston political consultant and Patrick adviser, said the flap over Walsh's appointment, was Patrick wading into territory that was quintessentially an insider game while stumbling because it was unfamiliar turf.

I think he's not there yet as a quintessential insider, Ferriabough said. I think what we've seen is the outsider now coming inside and now learning some things that he's never thought of as an outsider, and still trying to keep some groundedness.

I don't want to paint a picture of him as naïve, but a lot of us have said, "Jeez, you didn't see that coming?" But he came in fresh-faced, Ferriabough said.

In 2006, Patrick had easier going not just seizing the outsider mantle, but depicting his opponents as creatures of Beacon Hill. In the primary, Attorney General Thomas Reilly had logged eight years as attorney general, and venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli had already run twice for office: Congress in 1998 and lieutenant governor in 2002. Once past his Democratic opponents, Patrick could frame Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey as the next chapter in the by-then-unpopular administration of Gov. Mitt Romney.

His current crop of opponents could prove more difficult to group with the powers-that-be in state government. Cahill has been treasurer since 2003, but is not popular in the Legislature and earlier this year dropped out of the Democratic Party - in part, he said, because the party forces you to make deals.

Cahill spokeswoman Alison Mitchell said Tuesday, As the only independent in the race, Treasurer Cahill is focused on solving problems, not disparaging his opponents in an attempt to raise more money from party insiders.

Baker, while linked to the Weld and Cellucci administrations as a top fiscal and health policy aide, has been out of government for over a decade, helming Harvard Pilgrim Health Care until leaving earlier this year to run for governor.

Mihos is perhaps running the farthest outside of any of the candidates, largely a pariah even within his own party's establishment after running as an independent candidate in 2006.

Maybe he took a nasty pill when he wrote the ad, Mihos spokesman Kevin Sowyrda said Tuesday. That doesn't sound like bringing people together.

I guess if you disagree with the governor on the issues, he's going to pull out the long knives and it's going to be like that shower scene from "Psycho," Sowyrda said.

Asked about the effort to depict his opponents as insiders, Patrick campaign committee spokesman Stephen Crawford said of Baker and Cahill, respectively: The guy who came up with the funding scheme for the Big Dig is an insider. A guy who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from the financial services industry is an insider.

Baker has distanced himself from Big Dig policymaking.

John Zogby, a national pollster, said political currents, shifted partly by harsh economic realities, have left Patrick with a narrowed path to a second term.

This is one of those strange years, where it's not a good thing to be an incumbent, Zogby said in a telephone interview. There are incumbents, especially those elected outside the mainstream, or chosen outside the mainstream & who may be able to capture the public imagination by saying, "I've been fighting the special interests, I've been fighting the folks who've been controlling this state," and turn the burden back on them. It's obviously a risky strategy, but it's a strategy that could work.

In Massachusetts, in particular, beset not just by the economic storm but a spate of political corruption scandals, appearing to operate outside the State House sphere could be beneficial.

Whether it's as an incumbent or non-incumbent, I think being against the establishment is a very important target, because in many ways government itself is on trial this year, Zogby said. I think it's a worthwhile strategy, to try to pin the blame on the system.

Patrick advisers acknowledge that his disappointing poll numbers - including a survey showing the unpopular Legislature more trusted than the governor to steer the state through the fiscal crisis - handicap him as he heads into a reelection year, but argue that voters will view his reform work and budget moves as good-faith efforts to carry out his 2006 promise to impose fundamental change on Beacon Hill. Several said that support from Obama, who remains popular in Massachusetts, would also help.

Gabrieli, who has supported Patrick since losing to him in the primary, offered a self-deprecating take with an upbeat note on Patrick's chances of succeeding with an incumbent-as-outsider pitch.

Gabrieli said, I do think he's a pretty independent thinker ... When it comes to a political question, my record speaks for itself. I stand humbled by Gov. Patrick's political skills. He's clearly gifted and has a way to communicate effectively with the voters.