Achelpol: Eight years at bat for Democrats

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By DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star

OMAHA — As a scrappy Husker shortstop, Steve Achelpohl got used to bad hops.

That’s ideal preparation for a Democratic state chairman in a ruby-red state.

Despite the underdog challenges and frustrations always confronting the small-market team, Achelpohl suited up for nearly eight years and did battle with the Republican franchise.

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Steve Achelpol

Steve Achelpol

On Saturday, he finally took himself out of the lineup.

A few days before handing his uniform to Lincoln attorney Vic Covalt at a Democratic state central committee meeting, Achelpohl relaxed in his downtown Omaha law office, reflecting on the past but concentrating on the opportunities ahead.

The Obama campaign’s successful voter identification and registration blitz in metropolitan Omaha has set the table, Achelpohl said.

“We need to reach out to all these new registered Democrats,” he said.

“We need to keep the outline of the Obama organization in place.  We’ve got to build on that and resurrect it in the 2009 Omaha mayor’s race.

“Our challenge is to keep those people engaged.”

Black voters in north Omaha.

Young voters on college campuses and in the workforce.

New voters who had found no reason to go to the polls before Barack Obama.

Early voters who cared enough this time to make sure they voted instead of waiting and then perhaps finding it inconvenient or too time-consuming to cast a ballot on Election Day.

Achelpohl joined other Democrats in walking door-to-door in north Omaha neighborhoods handing out Obama campaign material.

“I never felt better in my life,” he said, than he did when he saw the smile spread across the face of the man who had jumped to the conclusion Achelpohl was handing out material for John McCain when he answered the door.

Democrats recaptured the voter registration majority in Douglas County this November for the first time in 14 years and cut into the Republican registration majority statewide.

And Obama claimed the first presidential electoral vote awarded to a Democrat by Nebraska in 44 years.

However, unlike their Republican competitors, Democrats in Nebraska don’t harvest victories in bumper crops.

The Obama win in the 2nd Congressional District was accompanied by a loss in the metropolitan Omaha House race.

“We were very disappointed,” Achelpohl said.

OK, let’s look back.

“Free at last,” Achelpohl said with a smile as he settled in behind the desk in his law office in the century-old former library building at 19th and Harney streets.

“But it has been a tremendously rewarding experience,” he said.

Achelpohl tried to build a party in a red state during eight years of Republican control of the White House and Nebraska’s State Capitol. Just as he leaves, a Democrat is about to become president.

Sen. Ben Nelson was the big Democratic winner during the Achelpohl years, but there were breakthrough gains.

Inheriting a state party that was “financially under water” and beset by a large financial disclosure fine, Achelpohl helped lead the party to its best years of financial stability while modernizing its  tool chest and professionalizing its staff.

Democratic membership in the Legislature has increased by seven since 2004, he said, and most of the new Democratic state senators are relatively young.

That, he said, creates “a bullpen, a bench, a harbinger of good things to come.”

Now, Achelpohl said, there’s a stable of future potential Democratic candidates. 

When he first became chairman and sought candidates for higher office, Achelpohl  said, he looked around and wondered: “Where are they?”

Nebraska Democrats owe a huge assist to Howard Dean for their organizational gains.

Dean’s development of a 50-state strategy as Democratic national chairman beefed up Nebraska’s undernourished party with staffing and resources.

Of the $400 million raised by the Democratic National Committee for the 2004 election, Achelpohl said, Nebraska received $12,000.

Along with other small red states, Nebraska was abandoned by the national party until Dean decided to compete in every state.

The value of national party staffing support and resources allocated to Nebraska ranges closer to $300,000 or $400,000 today, Achelpohl said.

It was national support that built the state party’s modern voter identification computer base, the essential ingredient in the tool box.

Achelpohl was one of the state party leaders who led the fight to elect Dean as chairman and embrace the 50-state strategy.

“Dean talked about Nebraska as one of his projects,” Achelpohl said. 

With Dean’s departure as national chairman, Achelpohl said, one of Covalt’s great challenges will be to “make sure that program is continued” in some form.

While pleased with Democratic gains in the 2nd District, Achelpohl said, he wishes the same intense voter drive could have been duplicated in the 1st District.

“We were aggressively promoting and pushing for the Obama campaign to come into the 1st District,” he said.

“It was a very close decision in the end.”

Obama defeated McCain in Lincoln while losing the eastern Nebraska district.

But Achelpohl prefers to look ahead.

The huge hurdle on the horizon is Republican Gov. Dave Heineman, who will be seeking re-election in 2010.

Democrats need to find and field “a practical centrist with a message of inclusion” to challenge him, Achelpohl said.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.