Obama To Raise Funds On West Coast

(NewsCore) - President Barack Obama landed in Seattle Sunday to begin a three-day fundraising swing through Washington, California and Colorado to raise money for his 2012 re-election campaign.

The president will attend two events in Seattle and two events in Silicon Valley Sunday before heading south to San Diego and the Los Angeles area for more events Monday. He finishes up with an address to supporters in Denver Tuesday before heading back to the nation's capital.

Obama, wearing a suit and tie, greeted supporters at King County International Airport in Seattle upon landing at approximately noon local time, before getting in a motorcade and departing for his first fundraising event -- a brunch at the home of Microsoft executive Jon Shirley in Medina, Wash., where 100 people are expected to pay $35,800 per couple for the honor of meeting with the president.

Obama later headlines a larger $100 reception for approximately 800 people at Seattle's Paramount Theater Sunday afternoon.

The president next heads to Silicon Valley where he will hold an event at the Woodside, Calif., home of John Thompson, the chairman of security software company Symantec. Tickets for that event start at $2,500. He then headlines a fundraising dinner at the home of Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg in Atherton, Calif.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the Obama campaign's goal was to raise $7 million during the California leg of the trip. After being forced to miss several fundraising events in the summer due to the debt ceiling fight, the campaign set a revised goal of raising $55 million in the third quarter, which ends Sept. 30. Obama raised $86 million in the second quarter.

"The first part of the quarter was slow," an unnamed member of Obama's national finance committee told the Times. "We hope to be able to make up for what we were not able to do."

On Monday, Obama hosts a luncheon event at the La Jolla, Calif., home of philanthropists Mason and Elizabeth Phelps before hitting the House of Blues in West Hollywood for a late-afternoon event emceed by Jesse Tyler Ferguson of "Modern Family." He later holds a cocktails and dinner reception at the Hollywood restaurant Fig & Olive.

In between fundraising stops Monday, Obama will host a town hall meeting on the economy at the Mountain View, Calif., headquarters of LinkedIn, a social networking site.

Obama, who raised $750 million during his 2008 run for the White House, is believed to be seeking $1 billion for his 2012 re-election campaign, though voter apathy and his poor standing in opinions polls may complicate that goal.