Obama’s S.F. visit to bring out sports and political stars

Giants legend Willie Mays, Gov. Jerry Brown and Mayor Ed Lee are all scheduled to be on hand when President Obama blows into San Francisco on Wednesday for a pair of sold-out fundraisers.

Obama’s visit comes less than two weeks after his last Bay Area cash catch. One party co-host explained that the president was heading to L.A. anyway for another star-studded fundraiser, so why not make a quick detour and pick up an additional $1.5 million for his re-election fight?

The big stop will be at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in Clint Reilly’s historic Merchants Exchange Building,

where 275 supporters will pay $5,000 apiece to have lunch with Obama.

The last time Reilly hosted an Obama fundraiser — a $2,500-a-head event in August with first lady Michelle Obama — guests were forced to use plastic utensils after the waiters confiscated everyone’s silverware as a security measure.

“From what I understand, that decision was made by a junior Secret Service person assigned to the first lady,” Reilly tells us. Early return: One of the biggest political stories of Tuesday’s primary was the absence of big-name or big-money Republicans to take on Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

It’s not like Feinstein is sitting all that pretty. In November, the Field Poll found only 40 percent of voters were ready to send the former San Francisco mayor back to Washington for a fourth full term. Forty-six percent said they were not inclined to vote for her.

“Not the greatest numbers,” said pollster Mark DiCamillo. But he said his Field Poll hasn’t bothered to do an update because “it’s just not a story.”

Why the lack of major opposition?

For starters, it costs at least $20 million to take on an incumbent statewide. “Raising that kind of money is a tough grind unless you can selffund,” said Republican operative Rob Stutzman.

And after Meg Whitman blew $178 million losing to Jerry Brown, and Carly Fiorina flopped almost as spectacularly against Sen. Barbara Boxer, big GOP names were nowhere to be found.

“That may change in time,” said Duf Sundheim, former state Republican Party chairman. “But right now, you don’t have a lot of rich people saying, ‘Gosh, running for office sure looks like fun.’ ” BART fast track: After we reported that BART had set a record with 28 escalators out of service last week, the agency announced a “concentrated effort” to get them working.

Agency officials “expect to have seven of the 12 escalators in San Francisco back in operation by June 22,” BART said in a press release.

“Having so many escalators out of service is certainly not the standard our customers have come to expect,” said BART board President John McPartland.

BART director Lynette Sweet said she and her colleagues have been getting a steady stream of complaints from riders for months, but had little success getting the transit agency’s maintenance operation to react.

“You have put the pressure on — and the spotlight — and now it has to get done,” Sweet said.

We’ll keep you posted. Oops: As part of a charity dinner Monday night for Project Avary, which provides programs for kids whose parents are in jail, former Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein was on the stage of the Great American Music Hall interviewing Laura Kaeppeler — Miss America 2012, whose father had been imprisoned for embezzlement.

“So,” Bronstein said, “you had a chance to meet our really boring mayor earlier today.” He got booed. Taken a bit aback, Bronstein tried to recover. “Well,” he said, “at least he’s better than the last guy.” EXTRA! Catch our blog at www.sfgate.com/matierand ross.