Sen. John McCain, who became the all-but-certain Republican nominee for president thursday, is making a quickie visit to Seattle on Friday, a day before the state’s presidential caucuses.
McCain campaign aides said the Arizona senator will address a closed fund-raising event at the Westin Seattle Hotel at 6 p.m. and then meet there with local volunteers and the public. The tab for the fund-raiser will be the maximum allowed by law, $2,300 per person.
The candidate will be on the ground in Seattle for only about three hours, between his arrival from Kansas — where Republicans also are caucusing on Saturday — and departing for California.
McCain all but cinched his party’s nomination Thursday when his chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, suspended his faltering campaign. McCain, meanwhile, turned his campaign away from battling Romney to trying to convince skeptical conservatives that he is a true conservative despite his occasional maverick tendencies.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee – whose wife, Janet, is arriving in the Seattle area Thursday for a two-night campaign stop – and Rep. Ron Paul are still in the running for the GOP nomination, but both lag far behind McCain in the nominating-delegate hunt.