Democrats are hitting the panic button in Washington State as the race between Democratic Senator Patty Murray and Republican challenger Dino Rossi narrows down to the nail-biter many of us knew it would be. How much is Murray’s eleventh-hour 911 call to Pres. Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice Pres. Joe Biden costing taxpayers?

After already receiving two visits from the executive branch’s non-dynamic duo, two more are scheduled for next week, along with a visit from Michelle “Let Them Eat Rice Cakes” Obama during the week before Election Day.

As Caroline May wrote last week at The Daily Caller:

Facing a tight reelection race, Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray is all of a sudden quite popular among the upper levels of the Democratic establishment. This month alone Murray will have had visits from President Barack Obama, first lady Michele Obama, former President Bill Clinton, and Vice President Joe — twice.

In a pivotal election in which the primary issue is the economy, and 70 percent of Americans in a recent Rasmussen poll saying they don’t trust the government to spend money wisely, will voters casually overlook the enormous cost of these top-level visits to the Northwest?

An online petition has begun to gather signatures to ask that Murray make public the cost to taxpayers for these visits. (Click to sign the petition and share with others.)

Every time the presidential airlift caravans across the nation, it isn’t as simple as hopping on the baby blue and white Boeing 747, paying for fuel and jetting cross-country. Advance teams (both political and security-minded) precede the arriving dignitary, complete with hotel stays, per diem, and their own transportation costs. The heavy burdens of providing additional security on the ground — as well as housing, feeding, and transporting the entourage — are ample.

Most of the costs of a presidential or vice presidential visit are necessary, but these visits are not in the interest of the people, but for the benefit of just one person, Patty Murray. The taxpayers should, at a minimum, be made aware of any involuntary contribution they’re making via their federal taxes to pay for Murray’s bid to round out almost a quarter-century in the warm, cozy club of the U.S. Senate.

Some may assume that Murray’s campaign picks up the tab for these high-level campaign stops, but considering recent revelations about the costs of flying Speaker Nancy Pelosi, her family and her booze back and forth across the country such assumptions may be incorrect.