Obama to Raise Millions, Promote Jobs Agenda in Western Swing c.2011 Bloomberg News

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama plans to tap the wallets of Hollywood entertainers, corporate executives and supporters to raise millions of dollars at multiple re-election fundraisers during a three-day trip to western states.

The president left Washington today for stops in Seattle, the San Francisco Bay region, San Diego, Los Angeles and Denver, with time set aside to promote his $447 billion jobs proposal, which has drawn opposition from Republicans and a mixed reaction from Democrats in Congress.

“We’ve got an electorate in California that is really deeply concerned and, frankly, unhappy, about the economy,” said Rick Jacobs of Los Angeles, founder and chairman of The Courage Campaign, an umbrella group for activist organizations in California that generally support the Democratic Party’s agenda.

Obama is up for re-election next year and with his Office of Management and Budget forecasting the unemployment rate will average 9 percent in 2012, the president is seeking to maintain enthusiasm among supporters. For the first time since he took office, less than half of voters in California approve of his performance as president, according to a poll by the non- partisan Field Research Corporation.

Obama’s job approval rating fell to 46 percent, down from 54 percent in a June survey, according to the survey of 1,001 registered voters taken Sept. 1-12. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. Obama won the state, the biggest electoral prize in presidential elections, with 60.1 percent of the vote in 2008.

Seeking ‘a Fighter’

“It’s going to depend on the president continuing to be the president we’re seeing now, which is a fighter,” Jacobs said in a telephone interview. He spoke after attending White House briefings Sept. 23 for California activists by Chief of Staff William Daley, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and top cabinet officials.

“Obama’s going to win California,” he said. The question is whether he’ll get the turnout of supporters and activists that he had in 2008, he said.

Obama last night sought to rally supporters during an address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Inc. in Washington.

“I expect all of you to march with me and press on,” Obama told the group. “Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes, shake it off, stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on.”

Money and Policy

The president is scheduled to make nine appearances during the three-day trip, seven of them devoted to raising money. Obama is making his 10th trip to California, his fourth to Colorado and third to Washington, since becoming president in January 2009.

Matthew Barzun, Obama’s national finance committee chairman, said in a Bloomberg interview published Sept. 22 that he aims to raise as much as $1 billion for the 2012 re-election bid amid sinking approval ratings for the president.

“I don’t think big donors to the party are influenced by short-term changes in poll numbers,” Linda L. Fowler, a professor of government at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. “If the slide persists and the numbers get lower, that is a different story.”

Money Targets

The Obama campaign collected more than $86 million in the quarter ended June 30, surpassing the combined haul of the entire field of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. The total includes money collected by the Democratic National Committee.

The campaign lowered its goal to $55 million for the quarter than ends on Sept. 30, because events in July and August were canceled during the fight over the debt-ceiling debate, Barzun said.

In Seattle, Obama attends a brunch at a private home with about 100 people who donated $35,800 per couple, according to the campaign. That’s followed by a second Seattle event at the Paramount Theatre for more than 500, where tickets cost $100.

Tonight in California’s Silicon Valley, John W. Thompson, chairman of Symantec Corp., the largest maker of computer- security software, hosts the president at his Woodside, California, home, where contributions start at $2,500 per couple.

Obama ends the day in Atherton, California, at the home of Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook Inc. About 50 people are expected, with contributions of $35,800 per couple.

Town Hall

Tomorrow, LinkedIn Corp., the professional social network with more than 120 million members worldwide, hosts the president at a town hall meeting at its Mountain View, California, headquarters, with the theme of “Putting America Back to Work.”

Chief executive Jeff Weiner will pose questions to Obama on jobs and the economy as the president presses for congressional approval of a $447 billion package of infrastructure spending, payroll tax cuts and other steps to boost the economy and reduce the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

The format reflects the White House’s continued use of technology to reach voters. It follows previous Obama town-hall- style events with Facebook, Twitter Inc. and Google Inc.’s YouTube.

The president resumes fundraising for the remainder of the day, flying to San Diego for a fundraiser at a private home at La Jolla.

Los Angeles

Then it’s on to Los Angeles for a pair of fundraising events. The first is at the House of Blues, part of a group of live concert halls and restaurants, on the Sunset Strip. Guests include Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell Pritchett on the ABC sitcom “Modern Family.” Tickets are $250, with about 800 attending.

The second Los Angeles fundraiser is planned at the Fig & Olive Restaurant, where tickets cost $17,900 per person.

After an overnight stay in Los Angeles, Obama flies to Denver on Sept. 27 to make an appearance at a local high school to promote the jobs plan that he says would modernize 35,000 schools and “put tens of thousands of teachers back to work across the country.”

Obama returns to the White House that evening.

--With assistance from John McCormick in Chicago and Julianna Goldman and Mike Dorning in Washington. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Carlos Torres

To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Seattle, at rrunningenbloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34bloomberg.net.