Washington (CNN) – President Obama heads to his hometown of Chicago Wednesday to help raise money for congressional Democrats.
The president will headline a reception and dinner for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats' political arm. According to an invitation obtained by CNN, ticket prices range from $1,000 per person to attend the reception to $50,000 for a table, preferred seating, and a photo opportunity at the following dinner.
The Wednesday reception and dinner is one of six solo fundraisers the president's keynoting for the DCCC this year, along with two joint fundraisers for House Democrats and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in advance of next year's midterm elections. Obama only headlined two DCCC fundraisers in 2009, ahead of the 2010 contests.
All 435 House seats and more than a third of the Senate seats are up for grabs next year. Democrats will not only try to keep their majority (currently 55-45 over the GOP) in the Senate, they'll try to win back 17 seats in the House to take control of the GOP led chamber.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker, and Rep. Steve Israel of New York, the DCCC chairman, will join the president in Chicago.
While the president says he wants to work with congressional Republicans to get legislation accomplished, if the Democrats retook the House in 2014 and kept control of the Senate, the president would have much more leeway in his final two years in office to pass bills opposed by the GOP.
"I would be dishonest if I didn't say that it would be a whole lot easier to govern if I had Nancy Pelosi as speaker," said Obama at an April 4 DCCC fundraiser in Pelosi's hometown of San Francisco.
Democrats controlled both chambers during Obama's first two years in office, but lost control of the House in the 2010 midterms.