President Obama's LA Visit Includes Fundraisers, Speech

Two fundraisers are on President Obama's Wednesday schedule before a speech Thursday at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College

President Barack Obama arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday afternoon for a 24-hour visit that includes two political fundraisers and a speech at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College.

Southern California is the last stop on President Obama's three-day West Coast trip that began Tuesday in Seattle. Obama began Wednesday in San Francisco, where he attended a morning fundraiser benefiting the House Majority Political Action Committee, before arriving at Los Angeles International Airport around 3 p.m.

Obama's first stop in LA was the Hancock Park home of television producer Shonda Rhimes for a late-afternoon DNC  fundraising reception and dinner. Tickets for the event begin at $1,000, according to an invitation posted  on the website, PoliticalPartyTime.org, which tracks political fundraisers.

The price was $10,000 to attend the reception and for the opportunity to have a photo taken with Obama. The maximum allowable contribution of $32,000 also allowed the donor to co-host and attend dinner with the President. 

The event's co-chairs include Kerry Washington, the star of the Rhimes-produced ABC drama "Scandal."

"The overwhelming majority" of tickets for the fundraiser were priced at $1,000 "because most of the people I know cannot afford" a $32,400 ticket,  Rhimes told City News Service.

On Thursday, Obama is scheduled to participate in a roundtable discussion at the Los Angeles home of Michael Rapino, CEO  of the concert promotion firm Live Nation. Ticket proceeds benefit the Democratic National  Committee.

The president is expected to raise up to $6 million democratic congressional candidates for the midterm election. Some of Obama's critics say the president shouldn't do that much fundraising when there are so many crisis spots around the world. 

Obama was originally scheduled to make an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, but the White House decided that appearing on a comedy show would be inappropriate given the events going on internationally. 

The lone planned non-fundraising event of Obama's visit to California will be Thursday at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, where he is expected  to speak on the "importance of job-driven skills training, particularly for  fast-growing sectors such as health care," according to the White House. The speech is scheduled for about 1 p.m. before the President departments LAX at about 3 p.m.

Various groups describing themselves as pro-immigration and pro- Palestinian plan to protest outside Trade-Technical College.

The Los Angeles Police Department advised drivers to avoid an area near the northern parts of Brentwood and an area south of downtown Los Angeles Thursday because of Obama's visit. The trip will be Obama's 19th to Los Angeles or Orange counties since  taking office in 2009 and the third in three months.

All but three of his trips have included political fundraisers.

Ted Chen contributed to this report.

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