As the GOP parties it up (and stretches it out) in Tampa this week, a good amount of the money they’re using to do it comes from an area much more associated with opening up its wallet to liberals than conservatives. (That’s not including the approximately half of the $87 million American taxpayers will be “donating” to both conventions.)

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While Obama has come into the Bay Area on a near monthly basis for over a year, Romney also hasn’t been shy about heading out to the West Coast and bellying up to the spigot that’s our seemingly endless outpouring of campaign cash.

When in town for a fundraising trip last month, the presidential nominee attended an exclusive luncheon at the Silicon Valley home of tech billionaire Tom Siebel with former GOP gubernatorial candidate/eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former Secretary of State George Shultz. The former Massachusetts governor then shuttled north into San Francisco proper for a shindig at the ritzy Fairmont Hotel hosted by former San Francisco Giants exec Peter Magowen and socialites Alexis and Trevor Traina.

On another fundraising trip earlier this summer, Romney made a surprise visit to the closed-down factory of failed solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, where he hammered Obama on his support of green energy programs like the one that gave the defunct company a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government.

“[This is] a symbol of gross waste,” Romeney told NBC Bay Area, while standing in front of the factory. “This is not the kind of building built by free enterprise, it’s the kind of building built with half a billion dollars of taxpayer funds.”

According to a report conducted by the Center for Investigative Reporting’s indispensable California Watch, the single largest individual political donor over the past decade is Republican Stanford physicist Charles T. Munger, Jr.. He’s given over $14 million to 25 candidates and 25 ballot measures, virtually all of which have ultimately come out victorious. That ability to pick winners could be chalked up to genetics: Munger is the son of Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman Charles Munger, Sr. and brother to attorney Molly Munger, the public face behind a California ballot measure hiking taxes to pay for the state’s struggling education system.

The next largest California GOP donor is Stockton real estate developer and San Diego Chargers owner Alex G. Spanos with just under $9 million, followed by investment honcho Charles Schwab at a little shy of $3 million.

These individual donors aren’t the only big sources of Bay Area campaign cash for Republicans. There are also bundlers.

Bundlers are individuals who, in addition to contributing their own money, work to get their wealthy friends and co-workers to donate. Campaigns are only required to disclose bundles contributed by registered lobbyists; making bundlers public is up to the individual discretion of each campaign.

In 2008, Bay Area bundlers delivered between $2.3 million and $5 million to the campaign coffers of GOP nominee John McCain.

Romney, unlike his Democratic opponent, has refused to reveal the names of his bundlers this election cycle, leading the non-profit government transparency group OpenSecrets.org to file a petition asking the campaign to reconsider its decision.

Combine this lack of disclosure with the realities of the post-Citizens United world of campaign finance, where super PACs aren’t required to release the names of their donors, and it becomes infinitely more difficult to discern precisely who in the Bay Area is giving to the Romney campaign.

Californians have given the Romney-affiliated super PAC Restore Our Future $6 million and Karl Rove’s American Crossroads super PAC $4.3 million.

Check out this slideshow of California’s top individual campaign donors:

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• 30. Marcy Carsey – $309,121, 100% Dem

  Company: Carsey-Werner LLC
  Home: Los Angeles, CA

• 29. Paul Michelle Zygielbaum – $316,100, 100% Dem

  Company: C8 Medisensors
  Home: Santa Rosa, CA

• 28. David C. Bohnett – $361,600, 85% Dem

  Company: Baroda Ventura
  Home: Beverly Hills, CA

• 27. J.J. Abrams Kathleen McGrath – $371,600, 100% Dem

  Company: Bad Robot Productions (Producer)
  Home: Beverly Hills, CA

• 26. Alan F. Horn Cindy Harrell – $395,275, 100% Dem

  Company: Warner Brothers
  Home: Los Angeles, CA

• 25. Richard W. Boyce – $406,040, 99% Rep

  Company: a href=”http://www.tpg.com/” target=”_hplink”TPG Creative Capital/a
  Home: Portola Valley, CA

• 24. Charles B. Ann. L. Johnson – $406,912, 98% Rep

  Company: Franklin Resources
  Home: Hillsborough, CA

• 23. Jesse Melinda Rogers – $415,000, 95% Rep

  Company: Altamont Capital
  Home: Atherton, CA

  Jesse Rogers at the Private Equity Analyst Conference.

• 22. Howard H. Gretchen Leach – $432,100, 99% Rep

  Company: Leach Capital
  Home: San Francisco, CA

  Howard H. Leach and his wife (L) as they attend the inaugeration of 3 fountains at Versailles Castle on June 12, 2004 in Versailles, France.

• 21. Sandor Straus- $440,125, 97% Dem

  Company: Merfin LLC
  Home: Lafayette, CA

• 20. David Desjardins- $524,100, 100% Dem

  Profession: Consultant
  Home: Burlingame, CA

• 19. Charles R. Helen O. Schwab – $527,998, 97% Rep

  Company: Charles Schwab Co
  Home: San Francisco, CA

• 18. Stephen L. Bing – $532,000, 100% Dem

  Company: Shangri-La Entertainment
  Home: Encino, CA

• 17. Geoff Anne Palmer – $578,100, 100% Rep

  Company: a href=”http://www.ghpalmer.com/home.html” target=”_hplink”G.H. Palmer Associates /a
  Home: Los Angeles, CA

• 16. John D. Marcia L. Goldman – $580,100, 100% Dem

  Company: Pace School
  Home: Atherton, CA

  John D. Goldman at the 2008 Goldman Environmental Prize award ceremony in San Francisco.

• 15. Lawrence Suzanne Hess – $719,650, 94% Dem

  Company: Lehbros Ltd
  Home: San Diego, CA

• 14. Terrence R. Barbara Caster – $723,450, 99% Rep

  Company: Caster Group
  Home: San Diego, CA

• 13. Howard Susan L. Groff – $735,000, 100% Rep

  Company: Northwest Excavating
  Home: Northridge, CA

• 12. Stephen M. Silberstein- $750,600, 100% Dem

  Retired
  Home: Belvedere, CA

• 11. Robert D. Arnott – $858,400, 100% Rep

  Company: Research Affiliates LLC
  Home: Newport Beach, CA

• 10. Morgan Freeman – $1,001,000 – 100% Dem

  Profession: Actor
  Home: Los Angeles, CA

• 9. Bill Maher- $1,010,000, 100% Dem

  Profession: Actor
  Home: Los Angeles, CA

• 8. Kareem Ahmed – $1,128,300, 100% Dem

  Company: Landmark Medical Management
  Home: Racho Cucamonga, CA

• 7. Haim Cheryl Saban – $1,166,073, 100% Dem

  Company: Saban Capital Group
  Home: Los Angeles, CA

• 6. Wayne D. Jordan M. Quinn DeLaney – $1,245,200, 100% Dem

  Company: Jordan Real Estate Invest/Akonadi Fdtn
  Home: Oakland, CA

  Credit: ema href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/oaklandlocal/4708869922/in/set-72157624169308487/” target=”_hplink”Oakland Local, Flickr/a.
  /em

• 5. Anne G. Earhart – $1,450,300, 100% Dem

  Profession: Investor
  Home: Corona Del Mar, CA

• 4. Irwin M. Joan K. Jacobs $2,205,300, 99% Dem

  Company: Qualcomm Inc
  Home: La Jolla, CA

• 3. Jeffrey Marilyn Katzenberg – $2,436,300, 100% Dem

  Company: Dreamworks Animation SKG
  Home: Los Angeles, CA

• 2. A. Jerrold Margaret Perenchio – $2,683,000, 100% Rep

  Company: Chartwell Partners
  Home: Los Angeles, CA

  File photo of A. Jerrold Perenchio from 1971.

• 1. Peter A. Thiel – $4,794,700, 100% Rep

  Company: Clarium Capital Management
  Home: San Francisco, CA

HuffPost Live will be taking a comprehensive look at the corrupting influence of money on our politics Aug. 30 and Sept. 6 from 12-4 p.m. EDT and 6-10 p.m. EDT. Click here to check it out — and join the conversation.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/bay-area-republican-donors_n_1841389.html

The first-ever dual visit by both presidential candidates to the city was unexpected, and came after the White House announced Obama would arrive Sunday night at San Francisco International Airport after spending the afternoon with victims and grieving families in Aurora, Colo.

Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that “clearly the tragic events” in Aurora have changed the “tone and tenor” of the campaign.

Romney on Sunday attended three private fundraisers, the largest an event at the Fairmont Hotel where tickets ranged from $2,500 to $25,000. He also hosted two “intimate” $50,000-a-head events – a luncheon at the home of billionaire Thomas Siebel in Woodside, and a Pacific Heights dinner hosted by Shaklee Corp. chairman Roger Barnett and his wife Sloan.

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, the current CEO of Hewlett Packard, was designated as a host for all of the fundraisers.

The Fairmont event began with a moment of silence in honor of the victims in Aurora.

“Our hearts are with the many people who’ve lost loved ones in Colorado,” Romney said, adding that Obama’s trip to meet with the families of the victims was appropriate.

Protesters at the event included Nancy Mancias of Code Pink, who said her organization intended to express its concern about what it called Romney’s “1 percenter” candidacy and his calls for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

The former Massachusetts governor is expected Monday to hold a rare public event in solidly blue California, which has been largely ignored by the candidates – except for fundraising. Romney is scheduled to hold a town hall meeting in Costa Mesa (Orange County).

Obama planned to head to Reno on Monday to address the national Veterans of Foreign Wars convention before returning to the Bay Area for three fundraising events: a “roundtable” for 25 deep-pocketed tech donors who will pay $38,500 each to participate; a $38,500-per-person dinner for 60 at the Piedmont home of real estate executive Wayne Jordan and his wife, Quinn Delaney; and a public reception at the Fox Theater in downtown Oakland, where tickets cost as little as $100.

Carla Marinucci is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer. E-mail: cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cmarinucci.

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Obama-Romney-holding-Bay-Area-fundraisers-3726800.php