LINCOLN — As the bustle of fall elections preoccupies political parties in Nebraska, Vic Covalt is waiting in the wings.

The Lincoln attorney takes over as chairman of the state Democratic Party after the November elections, and says he’s “standing on the edge of making a difference.”

The 55-year-old longtime Democrat ran unopposed for the position at the party’s state convention in June, seeking the job because of what he sees as a disconnect between the state party, the county parties, and the Democrats who aren’t involved in either.

“Every Democrat in the state is a member of our party, but we had done nothing to reach out to connect with them and ask them to do something,” Covalt, a Lincoln attorney, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’ve got to build some bridges and I think I understand how to build those bridges.”

Covalt knows he has a challenge ahead.

In a red state like Nebraska, Democratic success is hard to come by. Republicans hold nearly all statewide offices and enjoy a 178,000-voter advantage over Democrats in registered voters, which usually translates into more money.

Republicans account for about 49 percent of voters, Democrats about 33 percent, and independents about 17 percent.

For more than a decade, Democrats have held just one of the slots in the state’s congressional delegation, since former U.S. Rep. Peter Hoagland and U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey overlapped between 1989 and 1995.

The last Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election was Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

After the 2002 election, party leaders acknowledged that the state party came up short in helping gubernatorial candidate Stormy Dean, who got 27 percent of the vote against incumbent Republican Mike Johanns. Things got worse in 2006, when the Democrats’ nominee David Hahn garnered less than 25 percent of the vote against Republican Dave Heineman.

The same year, Jim Esch’s under-the-radar campaign came within 10 percentage points of unseating Republican Lee Terry in Nebraska’s 2nd District House race. Terry has acknowledged that his guard was down, but the state party did little to help Esch win the contest.

Amid all the obstacles, Democrats aren’t helped by internal party struggles.

In February, a fight about when to report caucus results spilled over into a barrage of public bickering. The argument between Douglas County Democrats and the state party came the night before the historic, first-ever caucus.

The party’s current leader, Steve Achelpohl, who didn’t seek re-election, called his job “a lightning rod position.” In his seven years as state chairman, Achelpohl has faced plenty of criticism from county parties, on political blogs and by Democrats who disagree with his methods.

Achelpohl calls Covalt an energetic leader who will do a good job, and says he’s enjoyed his tenure. But he says it’s hard to understand the real challenges until you’re doing the job.

“I’m sure that Vic will need to develop a thick skin,” Achelpohl says.

Achelpohl is realistic about the challenges, pointing out modest gains Democrats have made in the state’s officially nonpartisan Legislature since he took office in 2001. This year, the party organized 77 county conventions, Achelpohl said.

His replacement stresses that he doesn’t want to be negative.

But he says “too often our candidates have not come out of the party structure, and the party structure has not developed them and has not been ready to help them.”

“We don’t launch them into a Senate campaign without them ever running for something else first. They’ve got to learn how to win elections.”

Covalt is no stranger to Nebraska politics, often working behind the scenes in the Lancaster County Party.

He was launched into the spotlight in February, when the caucuses he helped orchestrate drew Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, thousands of people and a voice for Nebraska in the national race.

“Nebraskans were being shut out of the political debate over who got to be the candidates for president,” Covalt says. “Our primary had been without meaning since Gary Hart had run, and without real activity since Bobby Kennedy had run. And we found ourselves … 28 years later, not on the map.”

Covalt says he realized early on that the state Party didn’t have the structure in place to run statewide caucuses, so he started reaching out to counties.

If he’s gambling by taking the job, it’s with the belief that he can take the organization built to make the caucuses a success and translate it into a better, stronger state Party.

Then Covalt outlines what he sees as the stakes.

The nation has suffered, Covalt says, from the failure of government to balance consumer interest against corporate conglomerates with economic regulation to protect the middle class. Tax policy favors the superrich at the expense of everybody else, he says.

“This country’s in trouble,” Covalt says, “It’s been governed very poorly.”

The average Nebraskan has no business voting for anyone but a Democrat, Covalt says.

“John McCain is a great candidate if you’re making a million dollars or more a year,” Covalt says of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. “If you’re not, he has done nothing for you in 30 years of service.”

Republicans in Nebraska have been living on false issues for too long, Covalt says. Some people vote for candidates because of their stance on abortion, but “these are not political issues,” and Republicans don’t care about them, except to exploit them for votes, Covalt says.

“The Republicans had total control of all three branches of government for six full years. They did nothing. Absolutely nothing, because they don’t want to solve it,” Covalt says. “The minute they solve it, they no longer have the votes for their economic programs, which are making them very rich and the religious right very poor.”

As for his own political future, Covalt doesn’t expect to run for office in the future, although he won’t rule it out.

“My job is to speak the truth,” Covalt says. “The politicians have to make the deals.”

Nebraska Democrats: www.nebraskademocrats.org