If you've got a ton of indexed lower quality links and top spot holders are ballin' high PR HPBL's it's a whole nother game.
I hope you've done some research on their links?
Are you sure you haven't been penalised on that search term?
I beg to differ. No all links carry the same power, even if they have same pr, age, authority. I believe (I say believe because I don't know google's algo) that contextual links have the most power. Google will know what you are targeting much better if the text surrounding your anchor text is relevant. The more relevant, the better.