Obama requests tech learders to democratic party funding

SAN JOSE Calif: US President Barack Obama warned tech leaders on Thursday to dig deep in their wallets to fund Democratic candidates.
Obama was the headline speaker at four California fund-raising events, raising his two-day total to five. His last was a Silicon Valley event in San Jose co-hosted by Y Combinator President Sam Altman and Yahoo Inc CEO Marissa Mayer. About 250 people paid between USD 1,000 and USD 32,400 to attend.
Republicans have mounted a strong effort to seize control of the Senate from Democrats and are also trying to build on their majority in the House of Representatives. Obama said the effort must be stopped in order to prevent more gridlock in Washington.
“If that’s all they’ve got, then they shouldn’t be running either chamber, They shouldn’t be running the House. And they sure shouldn’t be running the Senate,” he said.
Earlier Obama took his California fund-raising tour first to the seaside home in La Jolla of Qualcomm founder Iwin Jacobs.
The tech industry has raised questions about the scale of the National Security Agency’s surveillance under the Obama administration, but there’s little sign that Obama is losing support in Silicon Valley.
Obama needs Democrats to do well in November to allow him to advance his agenda in his last two years in office, in 2015 and 2016.
But most political analysts believe Republicans will build on their House majority and stand a decent chance of winning the Senate.
Obama has been using fund-raising speeches to warn of this outcome, saying Democrats need to avoid getting distracted by media attention on the 2016 presidential election to choose a successor to him.
Obama said in La Jolla that Democrats need to gain seats “in order for us to not simply play defense but to actually go back on the offensive for the American people.”