Turned away from PhRMA event
Today began with Party Time being snubbed yet again, when the gatekeepers pleasantly but firmly turning me and Gabriela Schneider, the Sunlight Foundation’s communications director, away from the brunch party at the Denver Aquarium thrown by former member of Congress Billy Tauzin in his role as president and CEO of PhRMA.
The pharmaceutical industry, of course, contributes heavily to congressional candidates–$18 million in the 2008 election cycle alone, 50 percent to Democrats, 50 percent to Republicans–and spends even more on lobbying.
My unpopularity continued throughout the day as I chased down a few leads that went, well, nowhere. Wrong addresses, that sort of thing.
The only consolation we have here at Party Time is that our work is at least popular with the press and in the blogsophere. Many reporters and bloggers are writing about the private party scene here in Denver and at the GOP convention next week in Minneapolis/St. Paul and citing this website. Look for a roundup later.
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Beneficiary: congressional candidate, lawmaker, or entity which collects funds raised at party
Host: person who is hosting party-often, but not always, a registered federal lobbyist
Venue Name: where the party is
Entertainment Type: type of gathering, such as "breakfast," "ski trip," "bowling"
Other Lawmakers Mentioned: lawmakers mentioned on invitation who are used as a draw for the event
Sunlight's Party Time is a project to track parties for members of Congress or congressional candidates that happen all year round in Washington, D.C. and beyond. (read more)
We also post information we receive about parties where members of Congress are expected to participate—such as convention or inaugural parties.
Since we don't hear about all the parties, you can also tell us if you know where the party is and we don't.
Dem02020 said...
Over at the website Mediamatters.org, they just ran an item (in their “County Fair” section) about a producer at ABC who got busted by the cops, because he got too close and too nosy about one or another of these “purchase and sales of political influence” parties that you all at Party Time are already on the leading edge of monitoring… maybe you already know about the ABC guy getting arrested (maybe you were even there)… anyway, I posted a comment over there at the MMFA site, under an item titled “Finally, some real convention reporting: Too bad they got arrested.”
I’d repost here, what I wrote there:
If you weren’t already aware of it, an awesomely great Internet foundation, the Sunlight Foundation (“Sunlight”, or open and full disclosure, “is the best of all disinfectants” the website says), has sponsored a Project whereby people are monitoring the many parties and high class bashes that lobbyists and corporations are throwing in Denver, to lay money on and purchase influnce with, the political party that stands poised to administer our next Federal Government, and also maybe make for a greater majority in Congress than they already do…
And of course, these greedhead Democrats in Denver love it! More than just love (and accept) all the largesse and money contributions, they keep score of it in dollars, and brag about it too!
That’s how sick and twisted these Democartic greedheads have become: they are not only so confused that they think Public Service is in truth fundraising, but they then brag about their fundraising in the process!
Anyway, the thing that the ABC guy got busted trying to do, is what the Sunlight Foundation “Party Time”…
http://www.politicalpartytime.org/
…has been doing all week, all day long, and posting a blog about it, complete with video and pictures.
It’s Sunlight being shined on this extraordinary and out of control purchase and sale of influence, by a Democratic Party drunk with the false notion, that they have actually done something to deserve all the political capital that they are inheriting (instead of the truth, which is that they inherit this capital by default, not deed or merit)… and seeing as what you do with capital is make money from it, these Democrats are selling their new and great influence, in a mad and corrupted display of fundraising.
Comment posted: Aug 27, 2008 at 11:03 pmLeave a Comment