CORONA DEL MAR (CNS) – President Barack Obama concluded a brief
Southland visit today by making his first appearance in Orange County since
2009, attending a campaign fundraising breakfast in Corona Del Mar.
Tickets for the event at the home of Geoffrey L. Stack, a managing
director of the Sares-Regis Group, an Irvine-based real estate firm, and his
wife Nancy ranged from $2,500 to $35,800.
The top price was determined by the contribution limits of $2,500 for a
primary campaign, $2,500 for a general election campaign and $30,800 for a
national party committee.
The trip was Obama’s second to Orange County as president. He conducted
a “town hall’ style meeting at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on
March 18, 2009.
Obama departed from Los Angeles International Airport this morning
aboard Air Force One for San Francisco, where he will attend three campaign
fundraisers today.
This was Obama’s ninth visit to the Los Angeles area since taking
office, the sixth solely for political fundraising. Obama has spoken at
political fundraisers during all but his first visit to Southern California as
president.
Obama Wednesday began his 16-hour visit by speaking at two campaign
fundraisers at the Holmby Hills estate of soap opera producer Bradley Bell
Wednesday night, outlining why he believes he should be re-elected, a theme he
is expected to repeat in Corona Del Mar.
Obama first told 1,000 people, most of whom paid $500 to hear him speak
and an outdoor concert by the alternative-rock band Foo Fighters, that “we’re
starting to see the economy rebound.’
A $38,500 per person dinner followed, which was attended by
approximately 80 people, including actors George Clooney and Jim Belushi, Los
Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Fox.
Obama cited falling unemployment, passage of health care legislation,
the end of U.S. involvement in the Iraq War and the ending the ban on gays and
lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces as reasons he should be re-
elected.
A protest and rally organized by the Occupy movement “to highlight the
corrupting role that big money plays in politics’ was held at Will Rogers
Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, about a mile-and-a-half from the Obama
fundraiser.
“Our feeling is there is such a corrupting influence of money and
politics and basically it’s the foundational issue from which all of our
problems result,’ Lauren Steiner, an organizer of the protest and rally, told
City News Service. “We have to take money out of politics.’

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