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Attorney General Rob McKenna is preparing to officially launch his gubernatorial campaign, hoping to become Washington state’s first GOP governor in more than a quarter of a century, two Republicans familiar with his planning said Tuesday.

McKenna will formally announce his 2012 bid at a 6 p.m. event today at Sammamish High School in Bellevue, according to the two Republicans who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt McKenna. His political advisers would say only that he planned a “major announcement.”