As reported last week by Party Time, health care reform continues to be a potent fundraising issue for lawmakers. One legislator in particular has seen a large amount of funds come into her campaign from the health care industry and will perhaps do so again tonight.

Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa.,is scheduled to hold a fundraiser tonight hosted by several lobbyists for the industry. The healthcare sector was her largest contributor in the last cycle. The event is scheduled to be a dinner held at the offices of the American College of Radiology featuring fellow Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.

Geoff Werth, of the US Oncology PAC, is one of the eight listed lobbyists hosting the event. In September of last year, Party Time pointed out Werth’s event-hosting spree when he and his fellow US Oncology lobbyist Matt Brow hosted eight fundraisers in two weeks. At the time, Werth was lobbying on H.R. 2366, the Cancer Drug Coverage Parity Act, a bill that would require the coverage of oral chemotherapy drugs by private insurers. US Oncology is one of the largest purchasers of such drugs in the country and stood to benefit from the passage of the bill. Although this bill died in committee, the US Oncology and Werth are apparently still lobbying on its behalf.

Suggested contributions for the Schwartz event are $2,000 to host and $1,000 to attend.

As the members of the House Ways and Means Committee prepare to take up the health care reform debate next month, they are busy fundraising from health care lobbyists representing such companies as Eli Lilly, the American Hospital Association, and Johnson & Johnson.

Party Time has identified at least 124 fundraising events in 2009 alone for members of this powerful committee. Most invitations do not contain information about hosts or who might be attending. However, those that do provide a tantalizing glimpse of what the guest lists are like at these private events.

For example:

• Using the same watermark background of an image of the Capitol, a gaggle of nine lobbyists hosted one event for Chairman Rangel (a Valentine’s day bash breakfast on February 12) and is planning another on June 10 for Rep. Richard Neal, a Democrat from Massachusetts (reception and dinner). All but one of these hosts lobby for Ernst & Young–Nick Giordano, LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, Francis Grab Dave Koshgarian, Dick Meltzer, Jeff Petrich, Bobby Rozen, and Holly Bode–where they represent such clients as Aetna Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and Health Care Service Corp. The ninth, Tom Jolly, includes AFLAC Inc. among his clients. Rangel has collected $2.3 million in campaign contributions over the course of his congressional career from the health care sector. Neal has gotten more than $500,000.
  
• On April 22, lobbyists representing major drug companies were among the hosts of a dinner at Arcadiana for Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin. Rebecca Anderson, Chris Hatcher, and Susan Hirshmann all lobby for Wiliams & Jensen, where they represent such clients as Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca Inc., Novartis, Pfizer, and Wyeth. Ryan has collected more than $155,000 from the pharmaceutical industry during his years in Congress.
• Reps. Allyson Schwartz, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, and John Yarmuth, a Democrat from Kentucky, have both been wined and dined this year by Fred Graefe and Rita Norton. Graefe represents a host of health care interests, including Invacare Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp, and the Federation of American Hospitals. Norton lobbies for AmerisourceBergen Corp. Schwartz has collected more than $857,000 in campaign contributions from health care interests for her elections; Yarmuth, more than $257,000.

As we noted in our first post last week on parties for members of key health care committees, on parties for members of the Senate Finance Committee, it is nearly impossible to find out who attends these fundraising events. Lawmakers report their campaign contributions only once every three months. Even then, while it is possible to look for clusters of contributions around particular dates, there’s no way definitively to link contributions to a particular event unless one confirms it with the donor or campaign. Meanwhile, new Federal Election Commission rules on disclosing “bundles” of contributions are so weak that only one bundler disclosed by the first deadline.

[Thanks to Party Time intern Josh Heath for help researching this post.]

Here are the parties for members of the House Ways & Means Committee:

As those first pitches are thrown in baseball stadiums around the country, some lawmakers are using the events to do a little fundraising, as Politico reports today. We’ve got links to invitations for several of these occasions, including:

• A $1,500-a-head party for Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) at Camden Yards in Maryland tonight, Orioles v. the Yankees.
• On Friday, Rep. David Scott (D-GA) is asking for cash at a shindig at the Braves home opener in Atlanta. One version of the invite has the requested $1,500 directed to his leadership PAC, Brave PAC (is the name a coincidence?); the other has the contributions going to his campaign committee–and also mentions a special appearance by Hank Aaron. Maybe some guests will give to both.
• Some lawmakers, like Rep. William Clay (D-MO), have baseball fundraisers scheduled later in the month. In fact Clay has two: one on April 24, the Cubs v. the Cardinals and the other on April 30, the Cardinals v. the Nationals.
• Then there were those lawmakers who got in some pass-the-hat opportunities at spring training. We The People PAC (Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa.) had a baseball weekend in Clearwater, Florida during which guests could meet the Philadelphia Phillies’ broadcasters and some of the team’s players. Guests were also able to attend a spring training game. And Rep. Mike Arcuri (D-NY), invited guests to a reception back in March featuring former Yankees relief pitcher RIch “Goose” Goosage, recently inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Check out this list of fundraisers listed here at Party Time that show up when you do a search for “baseball” on the “entertainment” field. You’ll see that baseball and congressional fundraising appear to mix quite well.