Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan will be in the Seattle area later today for two fund-raisers. The Wisconsin Congressman is attending an evening reception, where tickets start at $1,000, followed by a separate dinner, tickets $25,000.

Those events aren't open to the public or the news media. The only chance for the cameras to catch him is this afternoon when he lands at Boeing Field. With this schedule, Ryan appears to be taking a cue from the Obama playbook, which often uses the Seattle area as a campaign ATM with private fund-raisers and little or no public events.

No public events makes it hard to mount a "spontaneous" demonstration by the other party, so Democrats are settling for a "rapid response" telephonic press conference with several people who will likely excoriate Ryan on his proposed changes to Medicare. It's actually a pre-response, because it's scheduled to happen a couple hours before the veep nominee gets to town.

On Saturday, former President Bill Clinton will be in Seattle for a fund-raiser for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee at the Convention Center. Tickets start at $150; getting a photo with the former POTUS costs $5,000.

Clinton is apparently a draw, even before his convention speech last week.. An Inslee spokeswoman said they've had to expand the space reserved for the fund-raiser after selling more than 2,000 tickets.

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