Hillary Clinton in Beverly Hills, Joe Biden in L.A. for Funderaisers

LOS ANGELES, CA - Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden are scheduled to be in the Southland on Thursday, possibly creating headaches for some Southland commuters.

Clinton will be attending a Beverly Hills fundraiser hosted by Casey Wasserman, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Haim Saban, and featuring a performance by Elton John.

Tickets for the dinner, which will include a performance by singer Elton John, start at $33,400 per person, according to an invitation obtained by City News Service. Individuals donating $100,000 will be designated as a co- chair, which includes admission to a co-chair reception with Clinton and what is described as premium dinner seating.

The $33,400 figure is the maximum amount an individual can contribute to a national party committee in a year under federal law.

Political fundraisers with a $100,000 (or more) ticket price are the result of a series of court decisions, "which have made it increasingly easy for candidates of both parties to raise larger and larger amounts of money -- not necessarily for their own campaigns, but for their respective political parties and related activities," said Dan Schnur, the director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.

"When you get practical, it's a distinction without a difference," Schnur told City News Service. "Either way, the money gets spent for the same thing."

Big-money political fundraising "essentially puts democracy for sale to the highest bidder," Schnur said.

"One of the most important contributing forces to the decline in voting participation among young people is the immense amount of money that is given to campaigns by wealthy donors on both sides," Schnur said.

"My students know that they get one vote. But they also understand that a CEO or a union head or a wealthy individual in either party gets hundreds of thousands if not millions of votes. It's no wonder they'd rather clean up a park" than get involved in politics, he said.

Beginning in 1976, the major party presidential nominees received federal funds to finance their general election campaigns if they agreed not to raise money for their official campaign committee and abide by spending limits.

"Back in the '70s the thought was if you offered a presidential candidate a significant amount of money from public coffers to refrain from doing his own fundraising, then he would," Schnur said.

"But as the fundraising opportunities got larger and larger, the incentive to rein in fundraising became less and less. Now general election candidates simply ignore the public funding option."

In 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama became the first major party nominee to decline federal funding, reflecting the belief -- ultimately proven correct -- that his campaign could raise more than it would receive from the federal government.

The major party nominees in both 2012 and 2016 declined federal funding.

In a June 22 speech, Hillary Clinton pledged to "fight hard to end the stranglehold that the wealthy and special interests have on so much of our government," drawing this retort from Natalie Strom, an assistant press secretary with the Republican National Committee: "No one understands the 'stranglehold' that the wealthy have over corrupt politicians quite like the Clintons."

Clinton has promised to appoint Supreme Court justices that would overturn the Citizens United decision, which held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting political spending by corporations, associations or labor unions.

She also vowed to support a constitutional amendment "to allow Americans to establish common sense rules to protect against undue influence of billionaires and special interests and to restore the role of average voters in elections;" support legislation to increase transparency and end unaccountable money in politics; and establish a small donor matching system for presidential and congressional candidates.

Said Schnur : "For any president of either party to implement significant campaign finance reform would require an unprecedented amount of political courage."

Biden is not expected to attend the Clinton fundraiser, which benefits the Hillary Victory Fund. The vice president is scheduled to speak at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser Thursday.

He will be in Las Vegas early Thursday afternoon, speaking at a Clinton campaign event. According to the White House, Biden will travel to Los Angeles after the Las Vegas appearance and speak at a Southland DCCC fundraiser at 7:15 p.m. at an undisclosed private residence.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the following areas of the city "should be avoided when possible" Thursday and Friday to prevent travel delays for community members:

On Thursday:

• the area around Pershing Drive between Westchester Parkway and Imperial Highway from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.;
• the area around Imperial Highway between Vista Del Mar and North Sepulveda Boulevard from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.;
• the area around Wilshire Boulevard between South Sepulveda Boulevard and Malcolm Avenue from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.;
• the area around Lindbrook Drive/Hilgard Avenue between Westwood Boulevard and Le Conte Avenue from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.;
• the area around Hilgard Avenue /Lindbrook Avenue between Le Conte Avenue and Westwood Boulevard from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.;
• the area around Wilshire Boulevard between Malcolm Avenue and South Barrington Avenue from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.;
• the area around San Vicente Boulevard between Wilshire Boulevard and 21st Street in the city of Santa Monica from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• the area around San Vicente Blvd. between 21st Street in the city of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevard from 8:15 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.;
• the area around Wilshire Boulevard between South Barrington Avenue and Malcolm Avenue from 8:15 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.; and
• the area around Lindbrook Drive/Hilgard Avenue between Westwood Boulevard and Le Conte Avenue from 8:15 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.

On Friday:

• the area around Hilgard Avenue/Lindbrook Avenue between Le Conte Avenue and Westwood Boulevard from 5:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.;
• the area around Wilshire Boulevard between Malcolm Avenue and South Sepulveda Boulevard from 5:30a.m. to 7 a.m.;
• the area around Culver Boulevard between the 90 Freeway and Vista Del Mar from 5:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.; and
• the area around Pershing Drive between Culver Boulevard and Imperial Highway from 5:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.

More information is available by calling the LAPD Media Relations Section at (213) 486-5910.

-- City News Service