Ron Paul Visiting Berkeley Today

California has been on the dance card for the GOP candidates lately. Mitt Romney came to the Bay Area recently and . Now it's Ron Paul's turn.

Republican presidential candidate Paul is in the Bay Area today for a fundraiser in San Francisco and a town hall meeting at the University of California at Berkeley this evening.

The Texas congressman was scheduled to attend a sold-out luncheon at the Marriott Union Square at 480 Sutter St. at 11:30 a.m.

Tickets for the lunch were $350 per person and $250 for students and military personnel, according to his campaign.

Later today, Paul will head across the Bay to UC Berkeley, where he will give a speech at a 7 p.m. town hall meeting at Zellerbach Auditorium, which seats about 2,000, university officials said.

The event is free and open to the public.

The campus group Students for Liberty, according to the university, organized Paul's UC Berkeley visit.

The group's founder, 22-year-old Casey Given, a fourth-year rhetoric and philosophy student, said he anticipates that a large turnout may push the event to a yet-to-be-determined outdoor location on campus.

Given described Students for Liberty as a three-year-old student organization that is "dedicated to promoting libertarian ideas."

Paul ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988.

Zellerbach Auditorium is located on campus near Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.

-Bay City News Service