In 2002, Alexander Gage began combining voter registration lists with data from commercial firms that acquire information on Americans' consumer habits. Using the consumer data points as indicators of voters' political leanings, Gage, then working for market research firm Market Strategies Inc., was able to mine the data for likely Republican voters in predominantly Democratic neighborhoods, and to craft phone and mail appeals designed just for certain classes of voters. The tactic is now known to political pros as "microtargeting."

In Michigan, where microtargeting made its debut, the Republican Party has sorted the state's 7 million voters into no fewer than 42 different categories, based on hundreds of pieces of data that include voting behavior, age, income, magazine subscriptions, favorite vacation spots, even the length of a voter's daily commute and whether he or she has a telephone with caller ID. Using closely guarded algorithms and advanced computer modeling, the Michigan GOP can predict how likely voters in each category are to support Senate candidate Mike Bouchard and which messages stand the best shot at winning them over by Election Day.

The Democrats, meanwhile, are running a similar operation, courtesy of EMILY's List. The pro-abortion-rights group is dividing Michigan 's undecided voters into a dozen different segments based on church attendance and other lifestyle traits.

The Republican and Democratic microtargeting efforts in Michigan are being replicated in dozens of competitive races across the country, in many instances for the first time on a nonpresidential level.

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