It'll set you back $10,000 to have dinner with Sen. Joe Biden on Oct. 19th, but for $1,000 you can get to hobnob with the Democrats' vice presidential nominee at a late afternoon reception.

"Money is the mothers milk of politics," California Assembly Speaker Jess Unruh once said, and the axiom holds true for first Puget Sound visit of the fall campaign by a major party presidential or vice presidential candidate.

Biden will attend a reception at 4 p.m. on the 19th, at the Seattle Sheraton, and then attend a $10,000 dinner with proceeds to the Obama Victory Fund. No other events in the Delaware senator's schedule have been announced.

Gov. Sarah Palin was scheduled for a Hunts Point fundraiser on Sept. 24th, with the top tab of $25,000, but canceled out when the McCain campaign decided to put her through a foreign policy primer in New York. Cindy McCain served as substitute.

Washington is, at the very least, on the A-minus list of states in which to collect political dollars.

The Clinton-Gore campaign in 1996 took more than $1 million out of the state. Candidate George Bush raised more than $1 million in a single 2000 event at the Columbia Tower Club.

As president, Bush has taken in more than $1 million at fundraisers on the lawns of East Side moguls. Sen. John Kerry raised $2 million at a dinner in the Westin in 2004. (Kerry did not eat the hotel's food, but adjourned to Canlis' for an anniversary dinner with his wife Teresa.)

Kerry did, however, stage public events in Everett and Tacoma when he visited the state in September of 2004. Clinton and Vice President Al Gore did a 1996 bus tour from Tacoma to Portland.
Democrats' wallets will be assaulted again when Al Gore hits town Oct. 24 to fill the campaign coffers of Gov. Chris Gregoire.