SACRAMENTO – Concert tickets for major acts are costly, but $100,000 to see the Rolling Stones (search)? If you're a fan of the legendary rock band and Arnold Schwarzenegger (search), that's the price to join the California governor in a luxury box at the Stones' Aug. 21 show in Boston.
Schwarzenegger kicks off the latest fundraising blitz for his Nov. 8 special election next week, a series of events capped by the concert at Fenway Park. The show is part of a tour to promote the Stones' latest album, "A Bigger Bang," (search) scheduled for release Sept. 6.
Schwarzenegger will host a private reception before the show for 40 guests who give $10,000 each to his campaign account. Guests contributing $100,000 apiece will be invited to watch the concert with Schwarzenegger in a luxury box.
The event caps a multistate fundraising swing for Schwarzenegger that begins next Wednesday with a $500-a-plate dinner at the National Orange Festival in San Bernardino. He'll host events in Sacramento and Lake Tahoe before heading east.
On Aug. 20, Schwarzenegger will attend a fundraising dinner at the New Jersey home of Lew Eisenberg, a prominent GOP activist and former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Schwarzenegger raised about $23 million in the first half of the year for the special election, campaign finance reports show. He and his political team have said they plan to raise $50 million to promote three initiatives on the special election ballot: a state spending cap, a proposal to change the way legislative districts are drawn and a measure making teachers wait longer to get off probation.
A California appellate court removed the redistricting measure from the ballot this week because of a dispute over wording, but its supporters have appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The concert event was arranged after mortgage lender Ameriquest, the lead sponsor of the Stones' 2005 tour, offered Schwarzenegger more than three dozen center stage and luxury box seats. A company spokesman refused comment to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Stones publicist Fran Curtis told the Chronicle that the band had no role in the governor's fundraiser.
The band, normally nonpolitical, generated controversy in recent weeks because one of their new songs, "Sweet Neo Con," (search) takes aim at conservatives. That sets up a potentially uncomfortable situation for Schwarzenegger, a Republican.
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