Presidential candidate John McCain will make a fundraising stop in Bellevue Tuesday. But the state Republican Party won’t be getting any of the money raised at the big-dollar event. It’s not that McCain Victory 2008 will keep all the money for the Arizona senator’s presidential campaign. The money instead will flow to states that national Republicans think will be battleground states in November.

The joint fundraising committee formed for the Hyatt Regency event is made up of the McCain campaign, the Republican National Committee and the state Republican parties of Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico and Wisconsin.

State Republican Chairman Luke Esser told me:

We’re not guaranteed to get anything. I wish it was the case we were guaranteed something. The way I like it to see it is we are still in the stages of proving to the McCain campaign that we will be a battleground state in 2008. I think the other states on the list have already proven that. I think we still can.

Esser said he also hopes that some of the money that goes to the RNC and the McCain campaign will end up being spent here.

I’m thinking this won’t be the last fundraising visit by John McCain and I hope we’ll get some money into our federal accounts at the state party if we do our work.

Events at the fundraiser run from $1,000 admission to a general reception to a Victory Dinner that will cost $33,100 per person. You can see all the details, including the proposed split of receipts
here.

At this point the money may not be as important as the pyschological hit of having national Republican leaders make it so clear they don't view Washington as an '08 battleground.