When the caliphate comes to Middle Tennessee, Lou Ann Zelenik will be ready.

During her first run for Congress in 2010, Zelenik, a Republican county commissioner and business owner, focused like a laser on what what she considered to be the greatest crisis facing her community: the impending Islamist takeover of the Bible Belt. Zelenik blasted her primary opponent, then-state Sen. Diane Black, for supporting the construction of a new Islamic community center in Murfreesboro, a small city about 45 minutes east of Nashville. "This isn't a mosque," Zeleniktold Talking Points Memo at the time. "They're building an Islamic center to teach Sharia law. That is what we stand in opposition to." Black, the favorite going into election day, held on by 335 votes and was elected to the House that fall.

On Tuesday, Zelenik is out for revenge—and this time it's personal. In Tennessee's 6th district, an area so conservative local Democrats aren't even fielding a candidate this November, Zelenik and Black are quietly waging one of the nastiest campaigns of the 2012 cycle, complete with a lawsuit, a super-PAC sugar daddy, and allegations of federal crimes.