"A low-ticket-price event"

Ace photog Walt Mancini wasn't too happy that he and other "campaign paparazzi" were kept at arms length, but they did what they could to produce more propaganda for a presidential campaign.

This time there wasn't even a candidate involved...just a surrogate...but what a charismatic surrogate!

This from Janette Williams' story of the day:

PASADENA -- For the second time in a year, Michelle Obama made a flying visit to town Wednesday for a campaign fund-raiser -- this time without her husband, front-running Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

"She's always been a surrogate for him, this is a typical process," said Lena Kennedy, an organizer of the lunch-time event that attracted a who's who of local Democrats.

With tickets at $500 apiece -- and a list of 27 hosts each expected to bring in $10,000 -- Kennedy said organizers hoped to raise about $200,000 for the "Obama for America" campaign.

"This is a low-ticket-price event," said Kennedy, who worked for former state Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge, one of the hosts for the event. "The price is very different from the last time."