September fundraising mayhem continues, with at least 37 congressional fundraising parties  planned today, all in Washington, DC. (To see a list of today’s planned parties, click here.) Many of these are events benefit candidates in tough races:

• Koch Industries’ PAC is one of the hosts for this GOP star-studded reception for Carly Fiorina, running against Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., at the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (NRSC). Others on the long list include GOP powerhouse lobbying couple Charlie and Judy Black, Missy Edwards, and Kirk Blalock. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sen. Minority Whip John Kyl, R-Ariz., and NRSC Chairman John Cornyn, R-Texas are also headlining the event.
• Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., defending her seat in Colorado’s fourth district, benefits from this breakfast at the D.C. law offices of Polsinelli Shughart PC hosted by a trio of the firm’s lobbyists: Jim Davidson, Anita Estell, and Martin Frost. Also today, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio and National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, headline this reception for her opponent, Cory Gardner.
• Sessions is also appearing at this fundraiser for Richard Hannah, running in New York’s 24th district against incumbent Michael Acuri, D-N.Y.
• Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., facing a tough race himself in Colorado’s third district, is the lead host on this breakfast for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC.

Click here to download Monday’s spreadsheet of upcoming fundraisers for candidates in competitive races We will be updating this list weekly.

On Thursday, June 24, Dan Meyer, a lobbyist for BP, is listed as one of several hosts for a Thursday $1,000-a-plate luncheon at the boutique Hotel George in downtown Washington. Meyer, who’s with the Duberstein Group,  was the Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs under George W. Bush in 2007-2008.

The fundraiser will benefit Colorado candidate Cory Gardner, who is in a tight race with incumbent Betsy Markey, D, Colo.

Amidst the biggest oil spill in US history, a series of public relations foibles, and public outrage against BP, the company’s lobbyists are continuing to work the Washington circuit. Here’s a list we collected last week.

The lunch also includes other energy lobbyists and industry players, including representatives from Koch Industries, whose political action committee is also listed as a host. House Energy and Commerce Committee members receive more contributions from Koch Industries than any other committees’ members. One member of this committee is Rep. Marsha Blackburn , R-Tenn., who is listed as a headliner to Thursday’s lunch. Koch donated $7,500 to Blackburn’s campaign this cycle and also donated $2,500 towards Gardner’s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

Minnesota Rep. Erik Paulsen (Whoops, Gardner’s party planning team misspelled his first name on the invitation) is also scheduled to attend.

Note: Party Time blogged last week about how Gardner canceled a Colorado fundraiser after the event’s main draw, Rep. Steve King, said that president Obama favors blacks over whites. Meanwhile Markey just tapped energy industry lobbyist and top Democratic bundler Brian Wolff to work on her campaign.

A $100-per-couple fundraiser for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District challenger Cory Gardner was canceled yesterday after the event’s main draw, Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, made statements on a radio show Monday that said President Barack Obama favors black people over white people.

The invitation had promised donors to an afternoon with Gardner and “special guest Congressman Steve King.” The invite also highlighted King’s position on the Agriculture and Small Business Committees in the House. It would have taken place this Saturday from 12-2 p.m. at The Pepper Pod in Hudson, Colorado.

Gardner’s campaign likely doesn’t want to make any waves. Colorado’s 4th Congressional District is considered a Democratic toss up, according to the Cook Political Report. Democrat incumbent Betsy Markey, who has only been in office for one year, faces the winner of the state’s August 10th Republican Primary.  Potential GOP candidates include Gardner, Thomas Joseph Lucero and Dean Matthew Madere.

The Northern Colorado Tea Party also canceled a weekend rally for Colorado senate candidate Ken Buck yesterday that would have also featured King and Gardner.

“I was pretty disappointed when I heard his comments,” Lesley Hollywood, director of the Northern Colorado Tea Party, told The Fort Collins Coloradoan. “What he said doesn’t fit in with tea party values, particularly in Northern Colorado.”

King, of Iowa’s 5th District, has held at least two fundraisers this year according to Party Time’s list of invites: a Feb. 10th lunch at the Capital Grille and a May 18th lunch at Charlie Palmer Steak house, both in Washington, where attendees paid $100 and hosts paid $2,000.

King is up for reelection in his solidly Republican district. He faces Democratic challenger Matthew Campbell in November.

Lobbyist Louis Dupart of the Normandy Group has hosted several fundraisers for Colorado politicians in the past, lobbying on their behalf for earmarks such as the construction of Colorado’s I-225 interchange, as detailed in a previous post. Dupart will host another fundraiser on March 11 for Rep. Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), to whom Dupart’s wife, Theresa,  donated $500 in 2009.

Later this month, on March 18, Dupart will host yet another party for Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D). Perlmutter has secured more than $1.4 million in funding for the interchange. The construction project is currently in its final stage of completion.

The Normandy Group also represents Forest City Enterprises, the developer of a 184-acre bioscience park in Aurora, Colo. In this last election cycle, Forest City’s PAC has donated $2,000 to Perlmutter’s campaign. Also, in the 2008 election cycle, Forest City’s PAC contributed $2,500 to Markey’s campaign.

Albert Ratner, co-Chairman of the board of Forest City, donated $2,000 to Markey last year. James Ratner, chairman and CEO of the Forest City Commercial Group, and Ronald Ratner, an executive vice president and director of Forest City, each donated $500 to Perlmutter in 2006.

Louis Dupart, a lobbyist who has successfully sought earmarks from  Colorado politicians, will host a fundraising breakfast on Feb. 24 for Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., the second event for a Colorado lawmaker he’s scheduled this month.The event occurs in the middle of earmark  season — the time of year when members of Congress decide on their funding requests for the next fiscal year and submit them to the two Appropriations Committees. House requests have to be submitted by March 19.

Dupart and his colleagues at The Normandy Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm that ranks appropriations and federal legislative issues among its specialties, have hosted or are scheduled to host at least nine fundraisers for Colorado politicians, including some who have requested earmarks for projects benefiting the firm’s clients.

In a Feb. 25, 2009 press release, Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) — who was the beneficiary of a fundraiser hosted by Dupart on September 30, 2009 — noted that he’d secured $1,425,000 in funding for an interchange at Interstate 225 and Colfax Ave for the 2009 fiscal year. That’s the same interchange that the Aurora Economic Development Council (AEDC), a nonprofit public-private partnership made up of businesses and officials from the city of Aurora, lists as a priority for its federal lobbying. The Normandy Group, which has represented the AEDC since May 2008, sought “federal funding for I-225 interchange” for its client, according to lobbying disclosure reports.

The project was aimed at relieving additional traffic created by a project that the AEDC had pushed — a new health care complex called the Fitzsimons/Anschutz Medical campus. The Normandy Group also represents the developer of the massive 184 acre bioscience park,
Forest City Enterprises. Normandy’s lobbyists tracked highway spending in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus bill, and lobbied on funding for transportation projects in other appropriations bills for the developer, according to 2009 lobbying disclosure reports.
Several members of the Colorado delegation have sought funding for the I-225 project. In addition to Perlmutter, who included another request for funding for the project in his fiscal year 2010 earmark requests, former Sen. Ken Salazar, now Interior Secretary, and former Sen. Wayne Allard requested funding for the project. Dupart hosted at least two fundraisers for Salazar, on June 29, 2006, and March 13, 2008. In addition, the stimulus bill included funding for early phases of the project.
In an undated press release from the University of Colorado, which will operate several facilities at the new medical campus, Wendy Mitchell, president and CEO of the Aurora Economic Development Council, cited “coordination between Colorado’s Congressional Delegation and the Anschutz/Fitzsimons Stakeholders Group…as making the funding a reality.” In August 2009, the AEDC honored all the members of the Colorado congressional delegation with an “A-List Leadership Award,” presented by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and President and CEO of the Aurora Economic Development Council Wendy Mitchell.

Overall, the AEDC has reported spending $60,000 for the Normandy Group’s services since 2008, and Forest City Enterprises, $540,000, although the developer’s interests included projects across many states.
When asked for comment by the Sunlight Foundation, AEDC Vice President Bryan Blakely said the Normandy Group primarily helped by organizing meetings and that while the group’s assistance was beneficial, they do not wholly attribute the success of the construction project to its efforts.

Dupart was scheduled to host a fundraiser for Colorado freshman Democrat Rep. Betsy Markey on Feb. 11. The after-effects of a blizzard shut down much of Washington that day. Louis Dupart did not return calls asking for comment or if the event took place; neither did Rep. Markey’s office.
Follow links to view invitations to parties hosted by Louis Dupart and other Normandy Group lobbyists for Colorado politicians:

• Sen. Ken Salazar, 6/29/2006, host: Louis Dupart, breakfast, Bistro Bis.
• Sen. Ken Salazar, 3/13/2008, host: Louis Dupart, breakfast, Bistro Bis.
• Rep. (now Sen.) Mark Udall, host: Michael Rose, 4/24/2008, breakfast, Bistro Bis.
• Rep. Diana DeGette, host: Louis Dupart, 7/16/2008, breakfast, Bistro Bis.
• Rep. Diana DeGette, host: Louis Dupart, 9/23/2008, breakfast, Bistro Bis.
• Rep. Ed Perlmutter, host: Louis Dupart, 9/30/2009, breakfast, Art and Soul.
• Rep. John Salazar, host: Louis Dupart, 12/3/2009, breakfast, Bistro Bis.
• Rep. Betsy Markey, host: Louis Dupart, 2/11/2010, breakfast, Bistro Bis.
• Sen. Michael Bennet, host: Louis Dupart, 2/24/2010, breakfast, Bistro Bis.

As long as we’re on the subject of Colorado, the race in the fourth district has grown tight between three-term Republican incumbent Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and Democratic challenger Betsy Markey. In a sign of how close, today the Colorado Independent reports that the National Republican Congressional Committee is reserving $1.2 million in airtime between now and Election Day for this race. Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Committee has reserved $667,000 in airtime.

Our Party Time database shows Musgrave as the beneficiary of half a dozen fundraising parties in 2008. The most recent was a breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club scheduled for September 24, three weeks ago.  The requested contribution was $2,000 to be a “host,” $1,000 for an ordinary attendee. Back in July she was one of seven beneficiaries at a scheduled luncheon sponsored by SCOTTPAC billed as a “Retention Effort for all Conservatives in the House.”

Turning to Markey, who reportedly is suffering from a cash crunch according to this fundraising appeal from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA),  our Party Time database shows only one party. Scheduled for September 25 at the popular fundraising locale Bistro Bis, the breakfast’s host was Rep. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont.

It’s important to remember that there are likely many more fundraising invitations out there for both Musgrave and Markey that we haven’t received here at Party Time. We only know about the parties our sources tell us about. That’s why we ask our readers to send us more.