BANGOR – Former Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore was the main attraction Saturday night for Democrats who attended a $25-a-plate dinner near Bangor International Airport, but it was the name of another nationally prominent Democrat that was invoked heavily to inspire the party faithful in the final days of Maine’s 2002 election season.

Gore and others who spoke at the event urged their fellow Democrats to help fight for the ideals espoused by Paul Wellstone, the U.S. senator from Minnesota who died Friday with his wife, daughter, and five others in a plane crash in his home state.

“He was passionate, he was committed, and he lived his principles,” Gore said of Wellstone, a former college professor who championed working class causes throughout his 12-year Senate career. Wellstone was the only senator in a contested race this year who voted in the minority against giving President Bush authority to wage war against Iraq, Gore told the estimated 400 diners at the event.

Gore also praised the four prominent Maine Democrats who are seeking election this year to statewide or federal office, each of whom spoke at the fund-raising dinner at Spectacular Events Center. The former vice president encouraged Democrats to do what they could to help get votes for U.S. Senate candidate Chellie Pingree, 1st District incumbent congressional candidate Tom Allen, 2nd District congressional candidate Mike Michaud, and current 2nd District congressman and gubernatorial candidate John Baldacci. Baldacci attended the dinner after a debate with the three other gubernatorial candidates earlier Saturday evening in Bangor.

Wellstone helped lead Democratic causes in support of correcting recent corporate accounting scandals, which have deprived millions of Americans of their life savings, according to Gore. The former vice president, who peppered his half-hour address with self-deprecating jokes, derided the Bush administration’s actions in addressing the issue of corporate responsibility.

“I’m telling you it is a sham,” Gore said. “If Paul Wellstone were here he’d say ‘vote Democratic and stand up for the little guy’.”

Gore characterized the Bush administration’s management of the national economy as “catastrophic” and wondered aloud why White House officials have pushed for a resolution for war against Iraq during the election. Gore did not openly accuse the Bush administration of trying to divert voters’ attention from the recent national economic downtown.

“I do not charge that is their motivation,” Gore said. “I cannot see inside their hearts.”

The former vice president, in arguing against war with Iraq, said that unlike in 1991, America’s allies are opposed to war with Iraq, and no clear link between terrorists and the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein has been established.

Pingree said Wellstone was a friend of hers and credited him with encouraging her to run for the U.S. Senate. She said the late senator lived “just down the road” from her grandparents’ dairy farm in Minnesota and often talked to her about her campaign.

“Frankly, we can never forget what the difference between right and wrong is,” Pingree said. “Paul Wellstone never forgot that difference.”

The event was originally scheduled to be the Maine Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, but was recategorized as a tribute to Wellstone after the senator and seven others died Friday morning as they were flying to a funeral in northern Minnesota.

According to Christy Setzer, communications director for the Maine Democratic Party, Gore had been expected to make appearances earlier Saturday in New Hampshire and at Momma B’s Kitchen in downtown Bangor but changed his schedule Friday after learning of Wellstone’s death. The estimated $10,000 raised at Saturday’s event will go toward general party purposes and covering the dinner’s costs, Setzer said.