The first member of Congress to endorse presidential candidate Bill Bradley will be making a stop on the ISU campus today to crusade on behalf of the former New Jersey senator.

Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone announced his support for Bradley back in April and has been campaigning heavily in Iowa and New Hampshire. Wellstone will field questions from students and faculty in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union beginning at 11:30 a.m.

“Since that endorsement, he has played a very active role in the campaign,” said Andy McDonald, Wellstone spokesman. “He is a key adviser for them and a key part of their effort, not just in Iowa, but around the country.”

Wellstone, a professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., has been a senator in Minnesota since 1990, when he became the only Senate candidate to unseat an incumbent in that year’s election.

Wellstone’s success was due largely to student volunteers involved in his grass roots campaign.

“[Wellstone] has a great rapport with students,” said Jim Farrell, spokesman for the Bradley campaign. “He understands their yearning for bold policy that speaks to students. Wellstone is going to tell students we need to get big money out of politics and the students back in.”

Bradley has also attempted to focus much of his campaign for the presidency on young Americans. Farrell compared Bradley’s outreach to students to that of Bobby Kennedy, who mobilized students across the country in his 1968 campaign for the presidency.

“Bill Bradley is doing that, too, and for a very good reason,” Farrell said. “We should unleash the idealism of students and young people, and Bill Bradley is the candidate to do that.”

McDonald said Wellstone also will be talking with farmers, students and labor activists on behalf of Bradley about topics that are significant to many Iowa voters.

“A lot of the issues that are important in Iowa — for example, family farms — are also front-burning issues in Minnesota,” McDonald said.

In January, Wellstone will be spending 18 days in Iowa talking to voters. As the Jan. 24 caucus date approaches, Wellstone will tour Iowa almost continually to meet face-to-face with residents.

“It is a very substantial commitment of his time,” McDonald said. “He’s simply committed to working hard for Bill Bradley and helping him win the Democratic nomination. This is crunch time in Iowa.”