Despite the cash-starved state of his presidential campaign, U.S. Senate chores once again have forced Republican John McCain to scrap a Seattle fund-raising event.

The Arizona senator was scheduled to appear at a $500-per-person campaign breakfast and $2,300-per-person "roundtable discussion" at the Washington Athletic Club Thursday morning. But campaign spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said McCain canceled "in anticipation of a key ethics vote" on an ethics reform bill in the Senate.

The fund-raiser will be rescheduled, she said, but no date has been set.

It was the second time the senator has had to put off a local fund-raiser. He originally was scheduled for a reception and dinner in Bellevue July 19, but a defense authorization bill kept him in Washington, D.C.

His slide in fund-raising and national poll numbers, resulting in wholesale layoffs of campaign staff, seems to be showing up in little as well as big ways. Although this week's Seattle fund-raiser was canceled on Tuesday, McCain's campaign Web site on Wednesday afternoon still showed it on his Thursday schedule.

The cancellation also took the wind out of a state Democratic Party news release on Wednesday that trashed McCain's expected appearance. The release was headlined, "McCain's failed presidential campaign sputters into Washington State."

The sputter has been postponed.