New polls showed the US Vice-President, Mr Al Gore, closing the gap with Governor George W. Bush as thousands of delegates and journalists poured into this city for the opening of the Democratic convention tonight.
Although the convention's main job is to nominate Mr Gore and his running mate, Senator Joe Lieberman, on Thursday night, it is President and Hillary Clinton who have been making headlines with a series of lavish Hollywood fund-raisers.
About $10 million was raised for the President's library at a brunch yesterday at Barbra Streisand's Malibu home. Tickets cost $100,000 a couple. On Saturday night contributors paid up to $25,000 to attend a gala with Hollywood stars and celebrities to raise funds for Mrs Clinton's New York Senate campaign.
Mr Gore will be encouraged by two polls this weekend which show him gaining ground on Mr Bush, who had established a double-digit lead coming out of the Republican convention in Philadelphia two weeks ago.
A new Washington Post poll has Mr Gore nine percentage points behind Mr Bush compared with 14 points in the same poll after the Republican convention.
Some of the city streets had an eerie look yesterday as shop-owners boarded up their windows against possible disturbances. But so far the protests have been peaceful. The only arrest by Sunday morning was of a man who dumped four tons of manure outside a fashionable hotel in an animal rights protest.
Anti-abortion protesters paraded silently outside an abortion clinic and later drove around the city with signs on their cars showing foetuses, while at the First United Methodist Church, 553 white crosses were erected to commemorate the 553 persons who have died crossing the US-Mexico border since 1994.
Meanwhile, as expected, the Reform Party Convention at Long Beach has resulted in the break-up of the party founded by Mr Ross Perot with rival factions supporting Mr Pat Buchanan, a former Republican presidential candidate, and Mr John Hagelin, a nuclear physicist.