Senator George LeMieux, R-Fla., will be fundraising for his leadership PAC, Protect America’s Future, on Tuesday at the “Sunset Festival” at FedEx’s Capitol Hill townhouse. LeMieux, who is not running in 2010, was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Charlie Crist, now an independent candidate for the Senate seat LeMieux is vacating. The race is considered one of the most competitive in the country.

According to this news report there is speculation that LeMieux is using the PAC, which he launched last December, to position himself for a possible 2012 Senate run. A spokesperson from his office denies this, saying “He is not raising money for a future bid.”

Hosting the event on Tuesday are several corporate lobbyists and PACs, as well as a well known Florida businessman. FedEx PAC is listed, along with CSX PAC and Progress PAC. Peter Blocklin lobbies for the American Bankers Association; Stacey Hughes represents a long list of health-related corporate clients for the Nickles Group; and Peter Rummell, is a Florida businessman who, along with his wife, LeeAnn, have contributed to numerous GOP and some Democratic  candidates. The PAC is asking $2,500 per PAC host and $1,000 per individual host, or $1,000 per PAC to attend, or $250 per individual.

In April Party Time reported that the PAC was the beneficiary of a fundraiser hosted by several corporate lobbyists, including several with clients in the financial services industry.

The PAC has raised $165,800 to date and spent $36,600 on supporting members of Congress such as Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass.,  Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who is making a run for the Senate in a hotly contested seat, and GOP Florida Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Connie Mack. While the PAC earlier gave money to Crist, who is now running in the Senate race as an independent, the most recent filings at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show a $2,400 contribution in June for Marc Rubio, the GOP candidate whose high poll numbers and Tea Party support led Crist to drop out of the GOP primary.

Calls to hosts were not returned by the time of this posting.

Note: Michael Wilson is also listed as a host of the event; however, there are two federal lobbyists listed named “Michael Wilson” in 2010 federal lobbying records, and without a returned call it is not possible to match the name. Other hosts listed appear as unique names in the federal lobbying data.

Keenan Steiner contributed to this post.

Note: an earlier version of this post had some incorrect political party references for lawmakers. This has been corrected.

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