Yes, the right is behind on campaign tech. But it’s seizing the mantle on tech policy.

When it comes to technology, Republicans are often said to lag behind Democrats. Conservatives are still learning to utilize voter data, a key liberal weapon in the last presidential race, to their advantage. Some GOP operatives say privately that the party remains dominated by a consultant class that's less than adept with the latest political technology. Yet even if they aren't quite as technically nimble on the campaign trail as their liberal counterparts, Republicans are starting to get in front of tech-related issues in an important way. It may not flip the outcome of any races anytime soon, but a growing Republican focus on tech may lead to a broader identity shift for the GOP that helps it draw in more money, more natural constituencies -- and perhaps more victories.

The Republican National Committee took a big step in that direction with a vote rejecting the National Security Agency's bulk phone records collection. With the resolution, which calls the program "an intrusion on basic human rights," conservatives reversed a decade-long tradition (at least) of defending the spy agency from criticism. Not a single committee member opposed the vote, as MSNBC's Benjy Sarlin pointed out. That's remarkable when, as recently as last summer, the measure failed to get enough support for a vote at all. The resolution's passage officially puts the party on the right side of the surveillance issue for civil libertarians who accuse the NSA of an unconstitutional privacy violation.