MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (REUTERS) — Thousands of Minnesotans paid tribute Tuesday to Democratic U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, the populist whose death in a plane crash threw the struggle for control of the U.S. Senate into disarray less than two weeks before the election. Elder statesman Walter Mondale, who was poised to replace him in the Nov. 5 race, along with former President Bill Clinton and his vice president, Al Gore, and dozens of senators were among more than 20,000 mourners that packed the University of Minnesota basketball arena and overflowed into the streets around it.

Thousands watched the proceedings in an adjoining pavilion and on a video screen erected outside the stadium, cheering and singing joyfully along with gospel singers at the memorial service, billed as a celebration of the fiery Wellstone’s upstart career as a defender of the working man.

The service marked the end of an informal break in campaigning set off by the 58-year-old Wellstone’s death Friday in a small plane crash in northern Minnesota that also killed his wife, daughter, three campaign workers and two pilots.

State Democrats, known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party in Minnesota, were set to meet Wednesday to anoint Mondale, 74, a two-term Minnesota senator who became Jimmy Carter’s vice president in 1977 and ran a losing campaign for president in 1984. Party sources have said Mondale would accept the appointment to run against Republican Norm Coleman, 53.

Opinion polls had shown Wellstone might have been pulling away in the waning days of the hard-fought campaign against Coleman, a former mayor and failed Minnesota gubernatorial candidate who was recruited to make the race by President Bush.

It was unclear how Mondale’s candidacy would play out, though hard feelings from the expensive and bitter campaign apparently lingered.

Wellstone’s two surviving sons, Mark and David, asked that Vice President Dick Cheney not come to the memorial service as he had planned. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson represented the administration.

A Minnesota Democrat said the family’s request might have reflected resentment over the frequent visits to the state by Cheney and Bush on behalf of Coleman. Others said the decision was made privately between Cheney and the family and was related to concerns about excessive security at the event.

“It was something very emotional … not an intentional slap in the face,” said state party chairman Mike Erlandson.

In what resembled a political-revival meeting, the crowd cheered wildly for Democrats, while Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi were booed.

Meanwhile, the state Democratic party filed suit demanding an injunction blocking the state’s plan for absentee balloting. The suit, filed with the Minnesota Supreme Court, said it was unfair that absentee votes for Coleman would be counted, while Wellstone’s absentee voters would have to show up at the polls to vote anew.

Outside the 15,000-seat stadium, Wellstone’s trademark green school bus was parked, a magnet for flowers and tributes such as unused campaign signs from the state’s steelworkers.

Wellstone supporters such as Katrina Wentzel, a teacher, said it was the two-term senator’s compassion that drew her to the memorial service. “He was that rare politician who cared about people in general, not just a select few,” she said.

“This service might be an opportunity for people in politics to reflect on his strong convictions and take that to heart,” said Charlotte Williams, a retiree.