Bill Clinton to campaign for Virginia gubernatorial candidate McAuliffe

By Margaret Chadbourn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Bill Clinton will campaign this month for his longtime friend, Terry McAuliffe, who is running for governor of Virginia. McAuliffe's campaign on Sunday said Clinton will join the Democratic gubernatorial candidate on October 27 for a three-day tour around Virginia. Recent polls have given McAuliffe a lead over his Republican challenger, Ken Cuccinelli, going into the November 5 election. "President Clinton will discuss the importance of voting in the 2013 gubernatorial election and the clear choice facing Virginia voters between Terry McAuliffe's mainstream plan to create jobs and invest in education and Ken Cuccinelli's extreme ideological agenda," the McAuliffe campaign said in a statement. On Saturday, Hillary Rodham Clinton, former Secretary of State and a potential 2016 president candidate, endorsed McAuliffe at a campaign event in Virginia. McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, is a close ally of the Clintons and was the co-chairman of Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential re-election campaign and Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 presidential campaign. (Reporting By Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Stacey Joyce)