NIU students watching soap operas Thursday in the Holmes Student Center lounge took time out during the commercials to shake the hands of State Sens. Patrick Welch and Penny Severns, who came along to help him campaign.

“Hello. I’m State Senator Pat Welch and I would appreciate your vote in November,” he said to the lounging students.

Welch, the Democratic senator from Peru, Illinois’ 38th District, arrived at noon to take a tour of the campus and visit with NIU students.

Severns, D-Decatur, came with Welch to help him campaign “because he is topnotch,” she said. “I drove three and a half hours to tell what a great guy he is. Remember Welch in November.”

Welch also handed out fliers and stickers to the students. The fliers include this opinions on education funding and working for his district, which includes DeKalb and LaSalle counties.

Welch’s quotes from the fliers include: “If it’s a bad deal for my district, you bet I’ll fight it,” “Before we send more money to bureaucrats, let’s make sure the students are the ones we’re funding,” and “Each of us must be an environmentalist. This is something we can’t leave up to someone else.”

Welch, who lives in Peru, was first elected in 1983. He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and the Kent College of Law. He serves as chariman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment and as vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations II.

Welch is battling DeKalb Republican Nancy Beasley to retain his seat.