Mondale shrugs off ageist taunts to woo Minnesota

The issue of policy rather than simply politics finally entered the fray here when candidates in the nation's most closely-watched Senate race went head to head in a televised debate. With the exception, that is, of the candidate most likely to win.

To the annoyance of his opponents, Walter Mondale – the courteous and grandfatherly former vice president who stepped in to help the Democrats a week ago after the incumbent, Paul Wellstone, died in a plane crash – chose not to take part. Instead he concentrated his efforts on travelling to several "town hall" meetings across the state to meet voters.

He is also likely to take part in a similar debate with the Republican candidate, the 53-year-old Norm Coleman, tomorrow night, just hours before the polls open.

Mr Mondale's absence from the debate on Friday evening underlines how in this race – which the Democrats know they must win if they are to hold the US Senate – policy matters much less at this stage than personality.

While there has been little difference between the positions of Mr Mondale and Mr Wellstone, Democratic party officials did not turn to the 74-year-old for his politics, but for the recognition of his name, and the almost above-politics stance he holds here, having been absent from the frontline for 18 years.

This near reverence felt by many towards the man who was once Jimmy Carter's deputy became clear almost as soon as he entered the campaign: at a "meet the voters" photo opportunity people seemed thrilled to meet him.

Mr Mondale's opponent, Mr Coleman (there are also candidates from the Green and Independence parties, but neither seems likely to score highly) has been focusing on his relative youth. Increasingly he has been talking "about the future", an approach that has led the Democrats to hurl accusations of ageism.

Bill Walsh, the deputy director of the state Republican Party, said of Mr Mondale: "His career as a politician was decades ago. He's come out of retirement for this. We're not saying he's an old guy who can't serve. But what vision or ideas does Walter Mondale have that are new? All we have is the philosophy from 20 or 30 years ago. Earn it, Mondale. Give us the vision. The new vision."

Though this is the most keenly watched Senate race, it emerged yesterday that the result is unlikely to be known before at least 2am or 3am local time (8am or 9am in Britain) on Wednesday.

Following the death of Mr Wellstone, thousands of absentee ballot papers that had been sent out to voters have had to be scrapped. And new ones have been printed. Election officials say it will take a long time to count them all.