Bill, Hillary Clinton plan appearances in Seattle area

SEATTLE – Both Bill and Hillary Clinton will visit the Seattle area next week – the former president to sign copies of his new memoir and the New York senator to campaign for her colleague, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

After a Tuesday fund-raising luncheon for Murray at noon at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Sen. Clinton and Murray plan to appear together at a port security event in the city, Murray’s office and campaign spokesman Alex Glass said.

Tickets for the luncheon range from $250 a seat to $1,000 for those who want to be listed as a “co-chair.” Murray’s campaign expects the event will raise nearly $400,000.

During a visit to the area last August, the former first lady raked in $350,000 for Murray and other Democrats while promoting her own memoirs, “Living History.”

That day was Murray’s highest grossing fund-raiser of her re-election campaign, Glass said.

Earlier this month, President Bush headlined a Spokane fund-raiser that netted about $750,000 for the GOP front-runner vying for Murray’s seat, U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt.

Hillary Clinton is expected to leave town on Tuesday night, when her husband has a book signing scheduled at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in San Jose, Calif. – the eighth stop on a 19-city book tour.

The former president is expected to arrive at Costco in Issaquah at 1 p.m. Wednesday. A second book signing is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle.