Joe Biden's LA Visit To Draw Big Donors, Union Protesters

LOS ANGELES, CA — Former Vice President and Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden will be in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Wednesday for a pair of fundraisers.

It will be Biden's first fundraising swing through LA since he announced his candidacy, and he'll be following in the footsteps of about every major Democratic presidential hopeful, all of whom have already come with hat-in-hand. Since announcing his candidacy, Biden has emerged as the candidate to beat largely because he polls well against President Donald Trump. South Bend, Indiana Mayor and presidential contender Pete Buttigieg will be on his heels, hitting the region to fundraise the next day.

According to various reports, Biden will attend a midday fundraising event at the Los Angeles home of UCLA School of Medicine faculty member Dr. Cynthia Telles and her husband, media executive Joe Waz. Then he is slated to head over to the the Beverly Hills home of James Costos, the U.S. ambassador to Spain during President Barack Obama's administration, and his husband, designer Michael Smith. The event is expected to draw Hollywood power brokers including film mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, producer Peter Chernin and director Rob Reiner. Katzenberg also hosted an October fundraiser in Beverly Hills on behalf of Biden's political action committee, American Possibilities. Biden spoke at that event.

Biden, the famously pro-union politician, will be greeted by National Union of Healthcare Worker protestors angered by his association with Telles, a board member with the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. The union is looking to gain Biden's backing in a continuing labor dispute with Kaiser Permanente.

NUHW staged a five-day strike at Kaiser facilities in December, contending the dispute is focused on under-staffing that forces mental-health care patients "to wait months to see their therapists." Kaiser has rebuffed that claim, insisting the union is not concerned about access to care, but about higher wages and increased benefits. Hospital officials said in December the union's demands "would reduce, not increase, the availability of mental health care for our members."

In a statement Tuesday, NUHW President Sal Rosselli said Biden "has the chance to do the right thing by standing with Kaiser clinicians and patients committed to making Kaiser provide timely and adequate care."

Tickets to the Wednesday evening fundraiser cost $2,800, which includes a photo reception with Biden. Becoming a co-host of the event costs $10,000, according to an invitation obtained by The Washington Post.

On Thursday, Buttigieg is expected to attend a rally with various union members in support of a proposed parcel tax on the June 4 ballot to raise funds for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.