Bay Area residents can expect a double-whammy of presidential fundraising later this month, and a bevy of protests to go along with it.

Shortly after news broke this week of President Barack Obama’s July 23 fundraising trip to Piedmont and Oakland, invitations surfaced for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s events in Woodside and San Francisco on July 22.

Protesters are expected to flock to both.

In fact, a call for protesters to gather outside the president’s 4:30 p.m. event at the Fox Theater on Oakland’s Telegraph Avenue went forth Thursday on the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center’s website.

“I hope you’ll be able to come out, so we can give our President a real East Bay unwelcome, and let him know we’re not happy that he does not have our backs when the big banks foreclose our homes, corporations are allowed to pollute and leave brown fields behind, neighborhood schools are being closed, the police kill people of color with no accountability … and the feds are raiding our cannabis clubs,” the post said. “The time is now. This is our big chance.”

All $100 and $250 seats for the Fox Theater event are sold out. But VIP seating tickets remain at $1,000, or $7,500 for event-sponsor status, including admission to a photo reception. Sponsors can then bring additional guests to the photo reception for $2,500 each.

The president also is scheduled to attend a $35,800-a-plate dinner reception starting

at 4:15 p.m. at the Piedmont home of progressive activist-attorney Quinn Delaney and her husband, real estate developer Wayne Jordan, among Obama’s foremost “bundlers.”

And the president earlier that day will hold a round-table for tech leaders — also at $35,800 per person — at an East Bay location yet to be disclosed.

But Romney will be in the Bay Area sooner, with three events scheduled for the day before the president’s visit.

Romney will have a $50,000-a-head luncheon at the Woodside home of Tom Siebel, founder of C3 and Siebel Systems. Among those scheduled to attend: former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz; Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman; Sun Microsystems cofounder Scott McNealy; and Howard Leach, the former U.S. ambassador to France.

Then Romney heads for a 4:45 p.m. event at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, with tickets ranging from $2,500 to $10,000. Former San Francisco Giants managing general partner Peter Magowan will be among the hosts there.

Romney will cap the day with a 6:30 p.m. dinner in Pacific Heights hosted by Shaklee Corp. chairman and CEO Roger Barnett, with a $50,000-a-person price tag.

Josh Richman covers politics. Follow him at Twitter.com/josh_richman. Read the Political Blotter at IBAbuzz.com/politics.

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_21070737/protesters-get-ready-obama-romney-plan-bay-area?source=rss