The names of those involved are quite familiar: Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, Norm Coleman. But the tactics these conservative insiders are using are different. They are slowly trying to catch up to the left—by using its techniques as their own.

“As a candidate in ’08, I was stunned by the stuff that was being thrown at me,” former Minnesota senator Norm Coleman says of his electoral loss to Al Franken two-years-ago. “Trial lawyers, environmental groups, labor—they were all smacking me on the same stuff. But we didn’t do that on the right. We did this cycle.”