Bush to Visit O.C. to Help Simon, Meet Merchants

President Bush will visit Orange County on Friday, including a stop in Dana Point to help raise funds for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr.

Bush will visit the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana at 3 p.m. A hand-picked group of Latino small-business owners have been invited to join the president in a round-table discussion at the museum.

Afterward he will attend a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser for Simon at the St. Regis resort in Dana Point. The event is seen as a chance for the struggling GOP candidate to rebuild momentum as he heads into the home stretch in his race against Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

Santa Ana police said they have been working closely with the Secret Service and will have extra personnel stationed near the museum Friday. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, meanwhile, said that its special dignitary protection detail will be on hand to help oversee the Dana Point event.

“They’ve been knee deep in preparations,” said Lt. Hayward Miller, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman. “We don’t anticipate anything abnormal regarding the president.”