More details are now available on President Obama’s first visit to the Bay Area since he won his second term – a fundraising junket to benefit Democratic campaigns in next year’s midterm elections.

The president will arrive in the Bay Area on Wednesday, April 3 for two events that evening in San Francisco to benefit the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

First will be a cocktail reception at the Pacific Heights home of Kat Taylor and Tom Steyer – the billionaire former asset manager who bankrolled last year’s successful Proposition 39 – for which tickets cost $5,000 per person. After that, there’ll be a $32,500-per-person dinner hosted by billionaire heirs/philanthropists Ann and Gordon Getty. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, is expected to attend both.

The president will remain in the Bay Area overnight and then attend two fundraisers on Thursday, April 4, to benefit the Democratic National Committee.

First comes a brunch at the Atherton home of Liz Simons and Medley Partners managing director Mark Heising, for which tickets cost $32,400 each. Then the president will attend a luncheon at the Atherton home of former insurance mogul and Levi-Strauss heir John Goldman and his wife Marcia, for which a $1,000 buys a basic ticket, $5,000 buys access to a photo reception as well, $7,500 buys lunch and photo reception tickets for two, and $20,000 buys access to a special co-sponsor reception.

Two Bay Area members of Congress will be headed to Vatican City for the March 19 inaugural mass for newly elected Pope Francis.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, will be part of the presidential delegation led by Vice President Joe Biden; other members of that group include New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Georgetown University President John DeGioia.

And Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, has been chosen by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to be part of the bipartisan congressional delegation to the event. “It is a high honor to be appointed to the House delegation to attend the investiture of Pope Francis, and humbling to be a witness to history,” Eshoo said in a news release today.

That delegation will be led by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and also includes Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.; Sean Duffy, R-Wisc.; Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb.; Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas; Jim Langevin, D-R.I.; Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill.; and Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, as well as House Chaplain the Rev. Patrick Conroy.

Besides Pelosi and Eshoo, Bay Area members George Miller, D-Martinez; Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton; and Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, are of the Roman Catholic faith, as is California Gov. Jerry Brown, himself a former Jesuit seminarian.

“I’m glad he’s a Jesuit,” Brown told reporters during a question-and-answer session Wednesday. “He is from Argentina, so that might give him a broader perspective to see the world through the Southern Hemisphere, but what the hell do I know? I thought Jesuits weren’t allowed to consider higher office. At least they weren’t in my day.”

President Barack Obama will headline his first Democratic fundraiser for 2014′s midterm election right here in the Bay Area next month.

The April 3 fundraiser in San Francisco will raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. According to an invitation obtained by The Associated Press, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will also attend.

The White House confirmed Thursday that the president will be in Northern California on April 3 and 4 for fundraising events for both the DCCC and the Democratic National Committee.

My esteemed colleagues at the Chronicle reported last week that the president should expect to be met in San Francisco by protestors urging him to nix the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

The AP reports Democratic officials have said the president plans to headline at least 14 fundraisers this year for the party’s House and Senate candidates. Some of the events will be in Washington, but most will be held around the county.

Congressional Republicans say Obama is more focused on regaining Democratic control of the House in the midterm elections than he is on seeking bipartisan solutions to the nation’s problems. Obama disputed that notion during private meetings with lawmakers this week.

From President Barack Obama:

“On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis as he ascends to the Chair of Saint Peter and begins his papacy. As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than two thousand years—that in each other we see the face of God. As the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world, and alongside millions of Hispanic Americans, those of us in the United States share the joy of this historic day. Just as I appreciated our work with Pope Benedict XVI, I look forward to working with His Holiness to advance peace, security and dignity for our fellow human beings, regardless of their faith. We join with people around the world in offering our prayers for the Holy Father as he begins the sacred work of leading the Catholic Church in our modern world.”

From Vice President Joe Biden:

“Jill and I want to offer our congratulations to His Holiness Pope Francis, and extend our prayers as he takes on this holy responsibility. I am happy to have the chance to personally relay my well wishes, and those of the American people, when I travel to Rome for his Inaugural Mass. The Catholic Church plays an essential role in my life and the lives of more than a billion people in America and around the world, not just in matters of our faith, but in pursuit of peace and human dignity for all faiths. I look forward to our work together in the coming years on many important issues.”

From House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco:

“With the election of His Holiness Pope Francis, the world’s Catholics turn to a compassionate leader for the poor, a champion of the least fortunate, and a man of humility committed to love and understanding between faiths and nations.

“Pope Francis has made history as the first Jesuit priest to ascend the Chair of Saint Peter and the first Pope from the Americas; his selection is a sign of respect and admiration for the growing ranks of Catholics, indeed all people, across Latin America.

“Whether named for St. Francis of Assisi, who cared for all of God’s creation, or St. Francis Xavier, who brought the faith to Asia, Pope Francis has been, and will be, a moral force to protect the poor and advance the faith.”

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-8 today to pass a bill that would require all gun sales be subject to background checks, and congressional Democrats and their allies are looking to maximize their gun-control momentum and messaging.

Today, Mayors Against Illegal Guns released a new advertisement featuring religious leaders demanding that Congress act to pass gun law reforms.

The ad concides with the start of the Papal Conclave in Vatican City, and comes just ahead of this weekend’s Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath Weekend – organized by Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence, the National Cathedral and PICO – in which congregations across the nation will gather to reflect and act on preventing gun violence including requiring background checks for all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and making gun trafficking a federal crime.

On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francsico; U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland; and other women in Congress will join Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, for a Capitol Hill news conference “to highlight the urgency for common-sense gun violence prevention legislation to protect our communities, families, and schools.”

On Thursday – the three-month anniversary of the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. – members of MomsRising, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Million Mom March (part of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence), Reston-Herndon Alliance to End Gun Violence, and other concerned citizens will deliver a petition with more than 150,000 signatures on it to National Rifle Association President David Keene at his Fairfax, Va. office. The petition urges the NRA to support common-sense gun safety laws.

On Friday, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, will chair the Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force’s hearing on “The Need for Background Checks: Preventing Criminals and the Dangerously Mentally Ill from Getting Guns” at the Capitol. Panelists are expected to include Carol Gaxiola of Arizona, the mother of gun violence victim; Dr. Daniel Webster, director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Joseph Bielevicz, a detective with the Pittsburgh Police Firearms Tracking Unit; Austin, Texas, Police Chief Art Acevedo; Joe Deaser, owner of the Capital Gun Club in Roseville, Calif.; and Jesse Ogas of Colorado, a hunter, sportsman, gun owner and former NRA Member.

This Saturday, March 16, the Peralta Community College District presents the second installment of the 2012/2013 Barbara Lee-Elihu Harris Lecture Series with a speech from Julian Castro, mayor of San Antonio, Tex., and a featured speaker at last year’s Democratic National Convention. Castro’s address on “Moving Forward… Together” is co-produced by the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center and Merritt College. The 7 p.m. event at the Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway, is free of charge but space is limited and so reservations are encouraged; call 510-434-3988.

On Thursday, March 21, former HP CEO and 2010 Republican U.S. Senate nominee Carly Fiorina will speak to the Commonwealth Club of California on “our financial future and the next tech revolution.” The club says Fiorina, now chairwoman of Good360.com and a CNBC contributor, “will share her thoughts on how the U.S. and California are performing in terms of innovation, job creation and economic growth.” Tickets to the 7 p.m. event at the Schutlz Cultural Hall in the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center, 3921 Fabian Way in Palo Alto, cost $20 for the public, $12 for club members or $7 for students with valid ID, and are available online.

And way out on May 4, donors are invited to help Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, celebrate his 68th birthday (which actually is May 17) at a fundraiser with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, at the Shadelands Ranch, 2660 Ygnacio Valley Road in Walnut Creek. The event aims “to support George’s re-election campaign and George and Nancy’s efforts to win back the House of Representatives,” the invitation says. Tickets start at $125 each.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Keith Ellison will headline Muslim Advocates’ fundraising gala next Saturday, March 9, in Millbrae.

Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Ellison, D-Minn. – the first Muslim elected to Congress – are scheduled to take part in a discussion “on opportunities to advance civil rights in the 113th Congress,” according to the San-Francisco-based organization’s e-mail.

Muslim Advocates describes itself as “a national legal advocacy and educational organization dedicated to promoting freedom, justice and equality for all, regardless of faith, by using the tools of policy engagement, legal advocacy and civic education and by serving as a legal resource to promote the full participation of Muslims in American civic life.”

Tickets for the dinner at the Westin San Francisco Airport hotel range from $100 for students and nonprofit/government employees to $250. “Buy your tickets today and help support our work fighting racial and religious profiling, combating anti-Muslim bigotry, and educating mosque and charity leaders to strengthen and protect their institutions,” the organization’s e-mail urged.

From Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose:

I applaud the President’s talk tonight regarding jobs and technology. We must ensure the resilience of the American worker, and the adaptability and innovation inherent in our economy, to keep us at the forefront of global competitiveness.

This is the Silicon Valley way of life and business, where the manufacturing sector employs 1 in 5 workers (more than twice the national average), where breakthrough ideas are cultivated, and where the world’s most successful visionaries and businesses call home.

If we renew our national commitment to winning the manufacturing jobs of the future, bringing Silicon Valley sense to Washington, and employ strategies that play to our nation’s natural strengths, we should see a new golden age of American manufacturing.

That is exactly why my legislative platform, introduced this week, will reinvigorate a critical component of our national economy by focusing on three components: Next-generation technologies, startups and small manufacturers, and re-shoring production lines from overseas.

• The Market Based Manufacturing Incentives Act empowers an apolitical commission of private-sector experts to designate the next generation of disruptive, market-changing technologies.

• The Scaling up Manufacturing Act, endorsed by the American Small Manufacturers Coalition, the American Chemical Society, and Silicon Valley’s own Applied Ventures, provides support to this nation’s entrepreneurs at the most critical stage of their business’s growth. This proposal stops offshoring before it ever starts, keeps our bourgeoning businesses here at home, and helps turns ideas into success stories.

• The Re-Shoring Bonus Deduction Act is a draft proposal aimed at promoting growth in domestic manufacturing among this nation’s most established and global enterprises. We should reward companies that bring jobs back to the United States and contribute to our nation’s economic growth by employing American workers.

Additionally, my STEM agenda for the 113th Congress supports Obama’s SOTU call for leadership in these fields. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics must be infused into our public school curriculum, emphasized within the clinical teaching preparation programs and applied into vibrant learning experiences in the classroom.

In order to keep Silicon Valley competitive and stocked with highly-skilled, creative workers, we must improve STEM education coordination on a national scale. For our nation to remain a leader in scientific advancement and technological innovation, this is what is required of us, nothing less. It is time to step up and STEM it.

From Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa:

“The state of our union is getting stronger, but we have more work to do. Whether it’s creating jobs, getting our fiscal house in order, fixing our broken immigration system, or putting policies in place that respect the Second Amendment while also reducing gun violence, our nation faces big challenges. We won’t overcome these challenges as Democrats versus Republicans – we must meet them together as Americans.

“We need to put people to work fixing our roads, bridges, overpasses and waterways while also building an economy that can compete long-term by investing in new industries like clean energy. To get our fiscal house in order, we need a balanced approach that focuses on job creation, makes sure taxpayers are getting the most bang for their buck, and reforms our tax code so everyone pays their fair share. We need to avoid manufactured crisis that do nothing but hurt our economy. And, we need a bipartisan, comprehensive fix to our broken immigration system.

“Finally, tonight President Obama once again called on Congress to pass legislation that will reduce gun violence. Last month the President acted by signing a series of executive actions that will have a meaningful impact on reducing gun violence. But as we know, the policies that would have the greatest impact require congressional action.

“Whether you’re an NRA member like Elvin Daniel, the guest I hosted at tonight’s State of the Union, a hunter and gun owner like me, or one of the millions of Americans who have never fired a gun, we can all agree that when thirty-plus people die every day from gun violence that it’s time for Congress act. My task force is already acting. Last week we released a comprehensive set of policy principles that both respect the Second Amendment Rights of law-abiding Americans and will prevent gun violence. We’re using these policy principles to develop and influence legislation in both the House and Senate and are working to get legislation based on these principles signed into law.

“But this can’t just be a Democratic effort. It’s time for our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work with us and use the principles we developed to put laws in place that respect the rights of lawful Americans to own firearms and make our schools, neighborhoods, communities and country safer.

“As the 113th Congress moves forward, I will continue working to overcome the challenges we face. And I am confident that if we put the partisanship aside and work together then our nation has even better days ahead.”

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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco – but a Baltimore native – spoke on the House floor today to congratulate the Baltimore Ravens on their victory against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII:

“I want to, Madame Speaker, to congratulate, I was going to call him Dutch, but Congressman Ruppersberger and the other Members of the Maryland delegation, more importantly, join them in congratulating the Ravens on a – they beat a mighty champion at the Super Bowl. As a proud 49er fan, who grew up on Johnny Unitas in Baltimore, going to those games as a teenager, and raising my own children on Joe Montana and Steve Young, you can just imagine how exciting this game was for me.

“But I think you quoted, Mr. Ruppersberger, you quoted coach Harbaugh. I will quote him in another way. They asked him after the game: ‘Was it hard coaching against your brother, your very own brother in the Super Bowl?’ He said: ‘It was hard; it was very hard. The only thing that would have been worse is if one of us were not coaching in the Super Bowl.’

“So, while it was hard to lose to the Ravens, it would have been even harder to lose to someone else. If someone had to beat the 49ers, I congratulate the Ravens on a game well played. I was in the stadium. I wondered who on the Baltimore side decided to pull the plug on the electricity. They were wondering who on the 49ers side did. In any event, there was good spirit. I think if you were there, and you saw that delay of game, not, not term of art, but like it, and you saw the mood of the people there, it was a real tribute to the people of New Orleans, who had extended such gracious hospitality in every way. That people were in a good mood, and they rode out that, that time.

“I want to join you in commending the leadership, the ownership, to Steve for his leadership of the, of the Ravens. But I also want to acknowledge the wonderful leadership of Art Modell. He passed away in the fall after being such a great leader in the Baltimore community, bringing the Ravens to Baltimore, and in being a part of the city in philanthropic and other ways. He was a great man and it was wonderful to see the Ravens with the ‘Art’ on, and everyone else – including Governor O’Malley and Mayor Rawlings-Blake with their ‘Art’ on their lapels throughout, throughout the weekend.

“So, to Art Modell’s family, to the ownership of the Ravens, congratulations. To the people of Baltimore, I know how exciting it is, and what it means to Baltimore. So I extend congratulations, and I also don’t have a bet because I said: ‘While I’m rooting for the 49ers, I would never bet against Baltimore.’ So, congratulations to all concerned. Thank you. I yield back the balance of my time.”

Pelosi’s Baltimore ties run deep. Not only was she born and raised there, but her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was a Maryland congressman from 1939 to 1947 and Baltimore’s mayor from 1947 to 1959; her brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III, was Baltimore’s mayor from 1967 to 1971.

OK, OK, we get it already: The Democratic Party’s top leaders do NOT want former Obama Administration official Ro Khanna to challenge fellow Democrat Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, in 2014.

Just days after President Obama’s outlandishly early endorsement of Honda, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi endorsed Honda today as well.

“Congressman Mike Honda’s life has been a tribute to the quintessential American ideals of equality and opportunity for all,” Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said in a news release from Honda’s campaign. “From a childhood spent in an internment camp, Mike has risen to the heights of American leadership – as one of the top Democrats on the powerful Appropriations Committee and a critical voice for fairness, the rights of LGBT couples and all families.

“Mike is a bold and effective leader who understands the needs of Silicon Valley and the 17th District, ensuring American competitiveness and fighting for American manufacturing, comprehensive immigration reform, STEM education, and technological innovation,” Pelosi continued. “We need his continued leadership for our nation in the House of Representatives, and I am proud to endorse him.”

Honda, 71, said he’s honored by Pelosi’s endorsement.

“Since my first campaign for Congress in 2000, Leader Pelosi’s guidance, support, and leadership have been imperative. She is the beacon of our Democratic Party here in the Bay Area and throughout the nation, and I am thankful for her endorsement,” he said. “I am proud to represent one of the nation’s most diverse districts, here in Silicon Valley – our nation’s hub of technology and innovation – and I look forward to continue working with Leader Pelosi on an agenda that keeps our Valley and our nation moving forward.”

Obama’s and Pelosi’s endorsements clearly are meant as howitzers trained squarely at any trial balloon that Khanna, 36, may care to float; he has said only that he’s considering his options, and he had declined to comment on Obama’s endorsement.

Still, Honda wouldn’t be wasting this kind of ammo on someone unless he sees that person as a threat. Khanna is the former Commerce Department official who raised a record-breaking $1.2 million in the last quarter of 2011 but chose not to run against Pete Stark, D-Fremont. Stark subsequently was unseated by Eric Swalwell, D-Pleasanton, and rumor has it Khanna’s focus has shifted to Honda’s 17th Congressional District, home to many of Khanna’s donors and the first majority Asian-American district in the continental United States.

Don’t forget: Obama and Pelosi had endorsed Stark, too, and the 17th District has a much higher percentage of no-party-preference voters – almost 32 percent – who won’t feel a need to vote in accordance with the party’s wishes.