St. Paul, Minn. ? Leading Democrats reached out to former Vice President Walter Mondale on Saturday, seeking a potent replacement candidate for the late Paul Wellstone in a race that could determine control of the Senate in the new Congress.

As federal investigators searched the wreckage of the small plane that carried Wellstone and seven others to their death, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and the head of the party’s campaign committee both talked with Mondale by phone.

The 74-year-old former vice president and Minnesota senator made no public comment, and none seemed likely before Wellstone’s funeral.

However, several Democratic Party officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mondale had not rejected the overtures that began within hours of Wellstone’s death on Friday, and they took that as a sign he might be receptive.

“No one has been ruled in or out,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who heads the Democratic campaign committee. She said she had spoken with Mondale “as well as a number of state officials in Minnesota.”

“He is very clear that he wants to respect the mourning the families are going through,” she said of Mondale. A memorial service for Wellstone and the crash victims associated with his campaign was set for Tuesday.

Party officials said Daschle, too, had spoken with the former vice president, an attorney who lives in the Minneapolis area. Democratic sources said prominent labor leaders had expressed interest in Mondale as well.

Decisive race

Wellstone, a 58-year-old liberal who died in the final days of a tough race for a third term, had fought to a narrow lead in the polls against former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman. The Minnesota race was one of a half-dozen or so expected to determine which party will control the Senate next year.

The senator, his wife, his daughter, three campaign workers and two pilots died when their plane went down in freezing rain Friday morning in northern Minnesota as they headed to a funeral.

Only the burned tail section of the private plane was still intact, Carol Carmody, acting chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday. Everything else was destroyed.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer explains the supplemental ballot that will be used for the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota, during a press conference in St. Paul, Minn. The supplemental ballot is needed because of the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone, who was killed in a plane crash Friday near Eveleth, Minn.

“It’s a complicated site, very marshy, lots of trees,” Carmody said. “It takes us time to sort through the evidence.”

It appeared the engines were powered when the plane went down, but it likely will take weeks to determine why the twin-engine Beech King Air A100 crashed, Carmody said. She said there was no cockpit voice recorder.

In father’s footsteps?

State Democratic Party Chairman Mike Erlandson said officials won’t decide who will replace Wellstone on the ballot until after the family has made funeral arrangements. Several party officials also said a decision would wait until Wellstone’s sons, Mark, 30, and Paul Jr., 37, who goes by David, and could be contacted to see if either had an interest in entering politics.

The list of potential replacements includes several politicians a generation younger than Mondale. Among them are his son, Ted Mondale, and Skip Humphrey, the son of another former vice president, but all have been tarnished politically, having lost statewide races in recent years.

Also mentioned as a potential replacement candidate is Alan Page, a member of the state Supreme Court and a former Minnesota Vikings star. He showed no interest in a U.S. Senate campaign when he was approached two years ago.

While Democrats considered that question, Gov. Jesse Ventura met with legal advisers to discuss appointing a temporary replacement for Wellstone to finish the final months of the congressman’s second term. He said he likely would appoint a Democrat.

“To me, that’s only fair,” Ventura said. He said Minnesotans elected a Democrat for a term that runs through January so the seat should stay with the party for now. He also said he would favor someone who doesn’t plan to run for the office.

“I don’t want it to become political,” he said.

Ventura said he is concerned about leaving the seat open until election results are certified.

“What if something happens? We have to have a senator,” he said. “If terrorism hits and they call a special session, we have to have someone to go out there.”

The process to nominate a replacement candidate for the ballot will take at least three days for the required notice to about 1,000 state central committee members of the date of a nominating meeting.

‘Spirit of Senator Wellstone’

“This is the most difficult challenge that’s faced the party probably since 1944, when it was created,” Erlandson said. “The good news is we know the spirit of Senator Wellstone is guiding us. I know Senator Wellstone would want us to continue, continue the fight for Democratic values and traditions.”

He described Mondale, 74, as “a wonderful statesman.”

Other potential replacements for Wellstone could include former Secretary of State Joan Growe and former Hennepin County prosecutor Mike Freeman, the son of former Minnesota Gov. Orville Freeman.

Separate groups of state officials were working Saturday on the legalities of the election.

It appeared that it would not be legal to leave Wellstone’s name on the ballot because under Minnesota law, a death creates a vacancy on a ballot. The candidate’s party can nominate someone to fill that spot, but that candidate would have to fulfill certain requirements, including being alive, state Attorney General Mike Hatch said.

Two years ago, when Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan was killed in a plane crash three weeks before the election while running for the Senate, his name remained on the ballot and he beat Republican Sen. John Ashcroft, now the U.S. attorney general. Carnahan’s widow, Jean, was appointed to serve in his place and is now seeking election.

“In Missouri, they actually provide that a deceased candidate could remain on the ballot,” Hatch said. Minnesota law has no similar provision.

If someone challenges that interpretation of law, the state Supreme Court would have to settle the dispute, he said.