It\u2019s a scenario that\u2019s all too familiar: President Obama will visit Silicon Valley this week \u2013 but the only Californians who will see or hear from him will pay at least $2,500 for the privilege.<\/p>\n
As the president begins his 20th trip to California since entering office, the seemingly endless capacity of the White House to vacuum up California campaign checks \u2013 without scheduling any public events \u2013 is becoming a cause for concern, even among loyal Democrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a missed opportunity,\u201d said Democratic strategist Garry South, who gave the maximum donations allowed to Obama\u2019s two presidential campaigns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s usually a mistake to just be making fundraising forays into a state like California without combining those political events with some sort of public activity,\u201d he said, noting public events offer alternatives to photos of Obama \u201chustled into the back of a ballroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s latest Silicon Valley fundraising swing, to benefit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, begins on June 6 and includes an evening reception at the Palo Alto home of Flipboard CEO Michael McCue and his wife Marci, where tickets start at $2,500 per person.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s followed by an \u201cintimate\u201d $32,400 per person dinner at the Portola Valley residence of star venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, and his wife Neeru.<\/p>\n
The California trip will include one official event: a meeting Friday and Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Sunnylands Estate in Rancho Mirage (Riverside County).<\/p>\n
Records show that in every one of his 13 trips to Northern California since taking office, Obama has never missed an opportunity for fundraising in the reliable Mother Lode for Democratic causes.<\/p>\n
His rare non-fundraising forays here have all been invitation-only \u2013 a May 2010 visit to the now-defunct Solyndra plant, and two 2011 private town halls at the Palo Alto headquarters of Facebook and Mountain View-based LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
Obama hasn\u2019t starred at a free event open to the public in the Bay Area since before the 2008 election, when \u2013 as a candidate \u2013 he held rallies and addressed thousands of voters in Oakland and Marin County.<\/p>\n
Even first lady Michelle Obama\u2019s last public events in the region were in 2009, when she made a visit to Bret Harte Elementary School in San Francisco and spoke to graduates at UC Merced.<\/p>\n
Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin said Obama\u2019s current troubles in Washington \u2013 the Benghazi attack, the IRS scandal and the outcry over secret gathering of Associated Press reporters\u2019 phone records \u2013 suggest the White House needs to adopt a war room strategy that takes advantage of every opportunity to tell his story to voters instead of \u201cjust chugging along.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really worried about 2014,\u201d Tulchin said. \u201cThe GOP is fired up \u2026 and there isn\u2019t a compelling narrative for the Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican strategist Bill Whalen, a Hoover Institution research fellow, said the problem isn\u2019t helped by Obama\u2019s frequent visits to California to focus on fundraising \u2013 not issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn trips like this, he raises a lot of money in Palo Alto,\u201d said Whalen, while just miles away, \u201cin East Palo Alto, they have a state of emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Law officers enforced a curfew in East Palo Alto last week and put more officers on the streets to deal with a spike in gun-related violence since January \u2013 an issue Whalen said Obama could address.<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s failure to schedule public events contrasts sharply with that of Democratic President Bill Clinton, who mixed fundraising and public advocacy events in dozens of trips to the Bay Area during his two terms.<\/p>\n
In 1996, for example, Clinton dramatized his \u201cBridge to the 21st Century\u201d agenda by marking NetDay at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord \u2013 where he personally laid wiring and installed computers with then-Vice President Al Gore.<\/p>\n
In San Francisco, Clinton also invited reporters along when he made stops in neighborhoods like Chinatown \u2013 on one occasion, he shopped for gifts on Grant Avenue, to the delight of the residents and business owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill Clinton treated California like he was a county supervisor,\u201d said South, who served as senior strategist to then-California Gov. Gray Davis. \u201cHe knew everything going on here. He knew every bridge project \u2026 and he just treated it like a personal domain. He was a kibitzer.<\/p>\n
\u201cObama has never had that relationship with California, and I\u2019m not sure he has that relationship with his home state,\u201d said South. \u201cHe\u2019s more of a (view from) 39,000-feet guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
South insists that Obama \u2013 who won California twice by double digits \u2013 still can seize the opportunity to use his visits as a stage to dramatize the importance of key items on his policy agenda.<\/p>\n
Those include immigration reform, high-speed rail and the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which he called \u201ca slam dunk\u201d for the president to address while he is in California.<\/p>\n
The nation\u2019s most populous state has become \u201ca model and a showcase\u201d for implementing the president\u2019s signature legislation, South said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe probably are further ahead in implementing Obamacare than any other state. \u2026 We\u2019re setting up the exchanges that many other states have resisted,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we have a Democratic governor and Democratic majorities in both legislative houses fully on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
South noted that even as Obama arrives this week to pick up checks from donors, Covered California, the new marketplace and state exchange for health care services, is working to educate the public on the legislation\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cA president of the United States, in a public forum, can say a few words \u2013 and that\u2019s worth a lot more a than a few public service ads that no one will see,\u201d South said. \u201cHe could play a very useful role here in helping the state with more registered voters than there are people living in 46 of the other 49 states.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carla Marinucci is The San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s senior political writer.<\/p>\n
E-mail:\u00a0cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com<\/a><\/p>\n