Partying on at the Inaugural
The National Journal’s “Under the Influence” blog, via reporter Bara Vaida, has the scoop on parties announced so far for President Barak Obama’s inauguration. She notes that while Obama’s presidential inauguration committee has limited contributions from individuals to $50,000 apiece, and won’t accept any from corporations, political action committees, and lobbyists, there are plenty of unofficial parties where these rules don’t apply.
She points to the gala thrown by Obama’s home state Illinois State Society party, which Politico reports has benefitted from big contributions from Illinois-based companies such as Exelon, American Airlines, Abbott Labs, Kraft Foods, Navistar, and Monsanta. The rumor is that Obama may stop by the event, and one cocktail party may include members of Congress.
Here is a list of parties announced so far compiled by the DC Convention Authority. Here’s another from presidential-inauguration.com. We’ll work on getting them into our Party Time database.
PARTYFINDER™ Hints
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.
Mark Rhoads said...
I think I strongly support the principles of greater political transparency, openess, and poliical accountability that the Sunlight Foundation stands for. I also served on the board of the Illinois Stae Society of Washington, DC for 20 years and worked on all their Inaugural Galas but this one. It is a good thing to make sure that there is sunlight and transparency on donations by companies to political events if, as, and when they are political events in the normal sense of the word. But in the case of nonpartisan state societies that have been around as civic booster clubs for more than a century, these clubs are mostly prohibited by their bylaws from any lobby activities or partisan action. They support student intern programs and other civic and educational causes on behalf of their states. A corporate donation to a state society event is not sinister per se unless someone gets special consideration from poitical influence and that is just not the case with nonpartisan state societies particularly in light of new House and Senate ethics rules. It is true that guests at state society events get a chance to meet members of Congress who are also guests. But if that is “face time” it is not as a practical matter time that translates well into a chance to lobby someone on a dance floor. State Society events are intended to be social and nonpolitical and they are. Home state companies support state societies both for a night and for the social and civic booster venue they provide in between the four-year events. Again, it is good to point out who is buying tickets to what events. But to automatically imply that every company donation to a nonpartisan state society necessarily is something beyond normal PR or an attempt to buy political influence with some lawmaker is not a case that can be supported by the facts of this more than a century-old tradition. I served three years as president of the National Conference of State Socieites and I have never heard of any case where a donor to a state society asked that club for help in approaching a lawmaker about pending legislation. Could it have happened? Maybe. But as involved as I have been I think I would have heard about any such effort over the last 20 years and I have not.
Comment posted: Dec 13, 2008 at 3:44 pmLeave a Comment