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As first reported Tuesday by WW, President Barack Obama will visit Portland on July 24. Details of the campaign event are becoming clearer—and more expensive.
The event will be a $1,000-a-head fundraising reception at the Oregon Convention Center. The time hasn't been announced, but some guests have been asked to RSVP to an unlikely host.
It's Jesse Cornett, the Blue Oregon blog co-founder who, as a City Council candidate in 2010, received $150,000 in public money to challenge Dan Saltzman—and finished third. Since then, Cornett has opened and closed a bar, The Guild Public House.
Cornett tells WW he's one of several members on the Obama host committee because he asked Terry Bean, the Portland gay-rights activist and influential Presidential fundraiser.
"I reached out to Terry," Cornett says. "He's a friend in political circles."
Cornett says it's a change from his public-financing advocacy. "It's a different market, that's for sure," he says. "I'm just trying to pitch in and help."
WWeek 2015