If Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, can’t play golf for himself anymore, why not play for others?

Booted from the GOP primary earlier this year, Bennett (along with senior Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah) will be fundraising in Park City this weekend anyhow, though not for himself but for the GOP’s North Dakota senate candidate, John Hoeven. After hitting the ‘best’ golf club in Utah, the party-goers are off to the vacation home of prominent health care lobbyist Jeff Kimbell, a past host at Bennett and Hatch events and a member of President George W. Bush’s transition team advisory committee for the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the Party Time invitation.

Bennett had long planned to be in Park City this weekend  for his annual August fly-fishing and golf campaign event. Unfortunately for him, “Flies and Drives” likely flew away soon after he lost his party’s nomination. In June, the Bennett campaign would not confirm whether ”Flies and Drives” was on. Now it is off, organizers told Party Time.

But it seems that the party animal — Bennett made the top 5 in Party Time’s database last year, including eight events at Capitol Hill eatery Charlie Palmer Steak – couldn’t resist a good fundraiser, 18 holes, and Kimbell’s ski lodge-esque home with views of Park City Mountain, which is available for rent at $700-per-night, according to the website. An email sent to Kimbell had not been returned at the time of posting.

Now, on the same day Bennett was supposed to hold his event, popular Gov. John Hoeven, the easy favorite to take the seat held by retiring Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., will be bringing in campaign cash. Hoeven and Bennett share the same fundraising consultants — the Bellwether Group — as listed on the two invitations. The Utah senator has paid the group nearly $50,000 this cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The day’s events include an intimate $1,000-per-person golf outing where just three foursomes will be playing at Park City’s Glenwild Golf Club. Then the group is off to a $500-per-head reception at Kimbell’s home.

As for life after Congress, Bennett, 76, seems a bit lost right now, telling the Salt Lake Tribune he wants to be productive — “I don’t want to go off and make ships in a bottle, collect stamps or something of that kind.” The DC Party circuit certainly won’t be the same. Charlie Palmer Steak will miss his presence, and the $16,500 spent there this election cycle.

In a week of longtime incumbents being nixed by their own party, all eyes are on the May 18 Pennsylvania primary as Arlen Specter, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned Democrat, fights to keep his office for a sixth term against challenger Rep. Joe Sestak and 13-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski tries to beat back newcomer Corey O’Brien in the state’s 11th Congressional District.

Also sitting precariously is Sen. Blanche Lincoln, who faces off against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, in the Arkansas primary on May 18.

Last Tuesday, Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., lost his bid for a 15th term for the 1st congressional district to state senator Mike Oliverio in the West Virginia Democratic primary. On Sunday, Utah Sen. Bob Bennett lost his bid for a fourth term in the state Republican Primary, in a victory for tea party activists.

Bennett and Mollohan had both raised far more than their challengers, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Mollohan had raised nearly $800,000 to Oliverios $320,000, while Bennett had raised $3.9 million, ten times more than the next most-funded candidate.

In Pennsylvania, Specter has so far raised more than $15.4 million, while Democratic challenger Joe Sestak has raised nearly $3.6 million. The Democratic primary winner will face off against Republican Pat Toomey, who has so far raised $8.2 million. Meanwhile in the House race, Kanjorski has raised nearly $1.2 million compared to O’Brien’s nearly $358,000.

According to Party Times invites, Kanjorski has held eight fundraisers since the beginning of the year, the latest was a May 12 fundraiser at the Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar, where for $5,000, people could host the event and for $1,000 they could attend.

Toomey has held three fundraisers this year, according to Party Time. The most recent was a April 27th fundraiser at Johnny’s Half Shell hosted by Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, where for $2,000 political action committees could co-host the event, and for $500, individuals could attend. The latest invites in Party Time for Specter and Sestak only date back to 2009.

Pennsylvania election results wont be known until next week, but according to early unofficial results of about 2,000 ballots, Specter was leading Sestak, 55 percent to 45 percent. Kanjorski was also leading in early votes of about 1,000 ballots with 50 percent of the vote to OBriens 33 percent.

In Arkansas, Lincoln has raised more than $8.7 million while Halter has raised $2.6 million.

Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, a three-term incumbent hoping for a fourth, had his hopes dashed on Saturday when his own Republican Party ousted him in favor of two newcomers in a victory for tea party activists.

The final tally at the Utah GOP Convention this weekend placed businessman Tim Bridgewater and lawyer Mike Lee on the ballot for the state’s June 22 Republican Primary. The winner of the primary will face off against the Democratic candidate in November. Bridgewater received 57 percent of the votes, Lee received 36 percent, and Bennett’s third place showing at 27 percent put him out of the running.

Bennett had raised far more money than his opponents, more than $3.9 million in 2010 alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Bridgewater had the second-highest total at more than $366,000–or less than a tenth of Bennett’s war chest, while Lee has raised a little less than $153,000.

Since January, Bennett has held six fundraisers, according to invites sent to Party Time. The most recent was a lunch with special guest Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, where for $2,000 political action committees could host the event, and for $500 individuals could attend. Bennett also held back to back to back fundraisers on March 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and another on March 10th.

This summer Bennett had scheduled his annual Flies & Drives golf and fly-fishing trip in Park City, Utah, the weekend of August 13-14. In January he held his Annual Winter Weekend at Park City where for $5,000 political action committees could sponsor the event or for $2,000 individuals could participate.

Party Time has no invites on file for Bridgewater or Lee. If you know of one, feel free to send it to us anonymously using this upload form.

Bennett missed a deadline to run as an independent but could run as a write-in candidate. However a spokeswoman for the Republican said that option was unlikely. Bennett is the first senator in Utah to fail to get his party’s nomination in 70 years, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Elham Khatami co-authored this report.

Since the beginning of 2010 through April, at least ten senators who sit on the Banking and Agriculture Committees are listed as beneficiaries of fundraisers hosted by lobbyists who have pressed Congress on financial reform issues. Both committees have recently worked on a bill to overhaul the financial regulatory system, which will likely be debated on the Senate floor next week.

According to Sunlight Foundation’s Party Time database, the fundraisers ranged from a “pre-St.Patrick’s Day” reception for Banking Committee member Jon Tester, D-Mont., on March 16 that asked for $100 to $1,000 in contributions, to a breakfast for Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, of the Agriculture Committee on March 10 that asked for contributions ranging from $500 to $2,000. Grassley’s breakfast also featured special guest, Banking Committee member Robert Bennett, R-Utah.

Tester’s fundraiser was hosted by 28 people, at least two of whom have disclosed lobbying on financial reform this year: Mitchell Feuer who represents Goldman Sachs, the Citigroup Management Corporation, Barclays PLC, Genworth Financial, Visa U.S.A., the Appraisal Institute, FX Alliance LLC, the Farm Credit Council and the LCH.Clearnet Group, and Thompson Reuters; and Shannon Finley who represents the Edison Electric Institute, Rent A Center and the Home Depot.

The Grassley breakfast was hosted by two JP Morgan Chase & Co. lobbyists, Nathan Gatten and Steve Patterson. Both were listed on a lobbying disclosure form for the first quarter of 2010; the company reported spending $1.5 million to raise issues on Capitol Hill related to credit card transaction fees, the modification of home mortgage loans, the regulatory oversight of bonds, short-selling practices, and use of derivatives to hedge risk.

In addition to raising money for the beneficiaries, the lobbyists hosting the events also had a chance for face time with other influential lawmakers. In fact, at a fundraiser today, three powerful members of the agriculture committee–Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., are listed as honorary hosts of a noon fundraiser for the Sen. George LeMieux’s, R-Fla, Protect America’s Future Political Action Committee.

The event also includes two hosts: Scott Reed who represents the Ben Barnes Group, a Texas state lobbying shop run by an individual who the Sunlight Reporting Group previously identified as the nation’s largest donor and bundler of campaign contributions at the federal level, and Kirsten Chadwick who represents the American Insurance Association, the Ford Motor Company, Mutual of Omaha, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the Business Roundtable, and UnitedHealth Group. Both Reed and Chadwick, who was once a special assistant to President George W. Bush, have lobbied Congress in the first quarter of 2010 on financial reform issues.

The invitation to LeMieux’s fundraiser asks for a contribution of $2,500 for a PAC host, $1,000 for an individual host, $1,000 for a PAC and $250 for an individual for the “reception-style luncheon” at the National Republican Senatorial Committee to raise money for the PAC which “supports candidates who embody the values of fiscal conservatism, smaller government and strong national security.”

We contacted Sens. McConnell, Cornyn, and Grassley for comment. Sen. Cornyn’s spokesman said that the lunch was a National Republican Senatorial Committee event and referred us to that office for a comment. The spokesperson did add that the senator was in a budget mark up all day and that it was unclear if he would be present at the event.

Asked for comment about the nature of Grassley’s attendance at the fundraiser, Jill Kozeny, Sen. Grassley’s Communications Director, said “Senator Grassley attends events, like this one, to raise campaign funds for Republicans. His participation is transparent. For himself, he accepts donations that are legal and have no strings attached.”

We also staked out the building where the fundraiser was held, but didn’t see any of the senators come in or out. Some members of Congress have canceled fundraisers hosted by financial industry lobbyists and firms.

Here is a larger list of recent fundraisers for senators Party Time has found that were or will include financial reform lobbyists:

* Bob Bennett, R-Utah., Banking Committee, March 4 fundraiser, Contribution Information: $500-$2,000. Lobbyists listed: Ray Cole, David Lugar.

* Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Agriculture Committee, March 3 fundraiser; February 24 fundraiser, Contribution Information: $250-$5,000. Lobbyists listed: Gordon Taylor; David Jones.

* Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Agriculture Committee, March 10 fundraiser, Contribution Information: $500-$2,000. Lobbyists listed: Nate Gatten, Steve Patterson.

* Mike Johanns, R-Neb., Banking and Agriculture Committees. Upcoming April 29 fundraiser, Contribution Information: $1,000-$1,500. Lobbyists listed: Charles Symington.

* Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Banking Committee, March 3 fundraiser, Contribution Information: $500-$2,500. Lobbyists listed: John D. Raffaelli, David Jones, Shannon Finley, Jim Gould.

* Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Banking Committee. March 17 fundraiser, Contribution Information: $1,000-$5,000. Lobbyists listed: Tony Podesta.

* Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Ranking member Banking Committee, March 11 fundraiser, Contribution Information: $1,000-$2,000. Lobbyists listed: Dan Crowley, James Walsh, Slade Gorton.

* Jon Tester, D-Mont., Banking Committee, March 16 fundraiser, Contribution Information: $100-$1,000. Lobbyists listed: Mitchell Feuer, Shannon Finley.

* John Thune, R-S.D., Agriculture Committee, February 23 fundraiser, Contribution Information: $1,000. Lobbyists listed: hosted at VISA offices. Lobbyist Listed: Tony Podesta.

* David Vitter, R-La., Banking Committee, March 11 fundraiser; March 10 fundraiser; Feb 23 fundraiser. Contribution Information: $1,000-$2,000. Lobbyists listed: Ray Cole, Kirk Blalock, Dan Gans, Rodney Hoppe.

Here’s how you can do what we did to find out if your lawmaker has met with lobbyists working on financial reform:

1. Search the Party Time database for your lawmaker for any recent invitations in 2010.

2. Open the PDF of the invitation and see if any “hosts” or “co-hosts” are listed. Not all hosts are registered lobbyists, but an awful lot are.

3. Search the House Lobbying Disclosure database for names that could be lobbyists. We used the tiered search to better refine what we were looking for. First we selected “Lobbyist Name” and typed in the names we were looking for (you have to enter them Last Name, First Name). In the second search bar we selected “Filing Year” 2010 and in the third search bar we selected “Issue Code” Banking. We’ll follow up with more searches in the days to come.

Unfortunately invitations in the Party Time database only represent a portion of the fundraising events that take place in Washington D.C. The database consists largely of events sent to us by anonymous sources, where we then strip off all possible identifying information. If you know of a fundraiser in D.C. or in your state, please consider uploading it to our anonymous upload system.

The snow is flying out west, where several lawmakers plan this week to fundraise while skiing:

• Rep. Ed Whitfield, Republican of Kentucky, will be welcoming donors to Vail on January 7-8; cost is $2,500 per PAC.
• Also in Vail on January 8 will be Democrat Rep. Diana Degette, for her annual fundraising event there. (Here’s last year’s invite.) She’s asking $5,000 per PAC, $2,400 per individual donor.
• In Park City, Utah this weekend is Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, who also hosts an annual ski fundraising event. He wants $5,000 for a “PAC sponsor,” $3,000 for a PAC, and $2,000 for an individual.

Over the course of 2009–the first full calendar year that the Party Time website has been in existence–we’ve collected and posted more than 3,660 invitations to congressional fundraisers and parties. That’s an average of 10 for every day of the year, 70 per week, and more than 300 per month.

We don’t know what portion this represents of all the parties that occur. We do know it’s not all of them. For example, we’ve been successful in collecting weekly lists of parties from three out of four of political party committees–the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). However, despite repeated attempts to secure the information, we’re missing the roster from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). (We’ll keep trying.)

Nevertheless, Party Time represents the most robust collection of these invitations that have ever been collected and made available to the public in a database. So, with a big caveat that these totals reflect what we have in our data, which are incomplete, here’s what we saw in 2009.

1. Top Congressional Partiers. The members of Congress who have the most parties listed in our database are: 1. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), with 35; 2. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), 34; 3. Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK), 33; 4. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), with 30; and 5.  Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), 29.

2. Will party for others. The lawmakers who appear most often on other candidates’ invitations as a draw for donors looks like a who’s who of the Congressional leadership: 1. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), with 47; 2. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), with 35; 3. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), with 32 (Cornyn is chairman of the NRSC); 4. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), with 30; and 5. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), with 29.

3. Most generous hosts. The lobbyists whose names appear most often on our invitations as hosts are: 1. Dan Gans, Polaris Government Relations, with 29; 2. Jocelyn Hong (Twenty-First Century Group), with 22;  3. Tim Rupli, (Timothy R. Rupli & Associates) with 19 (Also check out all the party’s at Rupli’s Capitol Hill townhouse.); 4. Tony Podesta (Podesta Group), with 14; and Louis Dupart (Normandy Group), with 14. Keep in mind that the names of hosts in our database are not yet standardized, and with that work done, other lobbyists might rise to the top.

4. The month most partied: June. We’ve got 608 invitations to congressional fundraisers in June, the most of any month. The next runner up is March, with 529, and then September, with 446. Fundraising tends to peak in these months because they mark the end of a quarter. Candidates  want to report big numbers to the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) to intimidate any potential challengers.

5. Most popular partying spots. 1. Capitol Hill Club, 439; 2. Johnny’s Half Shell, 229; 3. National Democratic Club Townhouse, 159; 4. Charlie Palmer Steak, 147; and 5. Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar, 125. This list looks very similar to last year’s, showing that congressional partiers are creatures of habit. (And convenience–these locations are a hop, skip, or a jump away from their offices on Capitol Hill.)