MANKATO — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani drew scores of supporters early Friday to the Mankato Happy Chef restaurant, and the unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate urged the crowd to work hard to get Sen. Norm Coleman re-elected to a second term.

“Now is not the time to be electing inexperienced people and giving them on-the-job training,” Giuliani said in reference both to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Coleman challenger Al Franken.

“And he brought hockey back,” a man in the crowd shouted, throwing Giuliani a bit off stride.

While Giuliani probably didn’t know about the Coleman campaign ad where Minnesotans repeatedly remind viewers that the former St. Paul mayor worked to return the National Hockey League to Minnesota, the former New York mayor talked of Coleman’s executive experience in St. Paul. And he contrasted it with Franken’s career, much of it focused on attempting to make people laugh.

“Comedians have their place,” Giuliani said. “And mayors have their place. ... We need Norm Coleman. Get him elected, OK?”

Several polls have shown Coleman, a first-term senator, locked in a tight race against the Democratic Franken with Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley running third.

Coleman said his spirits were lifted by Giuliani’s support, which included a Twin Cities fundraiser Thursday and later stops Friday morning in Owatonna and Rochester, and by the crowd that packed the meeting room of Happy Chef.

“The future of Minnesota and America really is on the line,” Coleman said of the upcoming election.

He promised, if supporters work hard in the next 10 days to get him elected, to work hard for another six years on their behalf. Coleman specifically said he would strive to block too much federal involvement in health care, oppose higher taxes, support efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil and put decisions regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the hands of commanding generals.

Coleman also talked of his connections to Minnesotans. He mentioned his numerous visits to towns statewide (he visited every county at least once during his first year in office). And he went out of his way to recognize a half-dozen people in the crowd ranging from area legislators to Republican candidates to a local farm leader.

“You want someone who knows you,” Coleman said, “knows your hopes, knows your dreams.”

Giuliani’s willingness to campaign with Coleman isn’t a surprise. He spoke in Mankato six years ago on Coleman’s behalf. And Coleman endorsed Giuliani during his unsuccessful bid for this year’s Republican presidential nomination.

Portrayed as “America’s mayor,” Giuliani was widely praised for his leadership following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Several in the crowd had props that referenced his past, including a woman holding a large photograph of New York firefighters raising the flag amid the ruins of the World Trade Center.

Giuliani noted the photo, saying he remembered the emotional boost it gave him the first time he saw it in the midst of the chaos and sadness following the attacks.

“It said to me, we still have the same spirit, we still have the same patriotism that we had back in World War II,” he said.

The crowd found less appeal in his gratitude expressed to a man wearing a New York Yankees hat, prompting a cheer of “Go Twins” and boos that matched the level reserved for references to Franken.

The Franken campaign responded to the Giuliani tour with a statement discounting claims of an experience advantage for Coleman, saying the senator’s experience is primarily in favoring special-interest groups and standing up for President Bush’s policies. The statement said Franken’s focus would be on middle-class families.