In the whirlwind of fundraising parties this month–as of today we’ve collected 427 invitations for this month and counting–Sen. Arlen Specter stands above his peers, with a dozen parties scheduled in March and more beyond. Specter faces a tough race in 2010, as Josh Marshall pointed out today over at Talkingpointsmemo.com, so it’s no wonder he’s out fundraising early.

Among the lobbyists and organizations that are throwing the parties for Specter are the National Association of Credit Unions; US Oncology and the Orbeek Group, a fundraising firm; McAllister & Quinn, Washington uberlawyer and lobbyist C. Boyden Gray; law and lobbying firm Blank Rome; the American Association of Railroads; Mark Heilbrun, a lobbyist for the firm Jenner & Block; Morrie Amitay, former director of AIPAC and Washington PAC, a pro-Israel PAC; and Mel Goodweather of the Livingston Group.

As my colleague Bill Allison over at Real Time Investigations often says, the invitations we post here at Party Time are like an “early warning system” for who is trying to raise the most cash, and from whom. When we finally get to see reports from lawmakers on how much they raised in the first quarter, it will be interesting to take a look at Specter’s numbers–and see who gave him contributions around the dates of the fundraisers.  Of course this task will be difficult because senators are not required to file their campaign finance reports electronically, meaning we’ll likely have to page through PDF reports until the Federal Election Commission rekeys the data. That’s why Sunlight advocates the passage of S. 482.)

Stay tuned for more analysis of March fundraising parties….

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