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Documenting the Political Partying Circuit
From the early hours of the morning until late in the evening, politicians are partying. Sunlight's PARTY TIME can help you find out who is partying, where and when.

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Who paid (for some of) the convention partying

There’s snow on the ground here in Denver. Last summer’s Democratic convention here and the GOP convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul seem like distant, balmy memories. Unfortunately,  disclosure of donors to the convention committees comes only long after the fact.

So it’s not until today that the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) are able to come out with joint, detailed analyses of who exactly these donors were and how much they gave: some $118 million for both conventions, $61 million for the Democratic National Conventionand $57 million to the GOP convention. Of that amount, “heavy hitters”–those giving $250,000 to $3 million–supplied 80 percent of the private financing. And those heavy hitters included some corporate faces that look awfully familiar these days–from their appearances lately in Washington with figurative hands out to receive bailout funds. From CRP:

Embattled insurance giant American International Group (AIG), which received an $85 billion loan from the government just weeks after the GOP convention, gave $750,000 to each gathering. And AIG isn’t the only high-profile company that sought a handout from taxpayers after writing a big check toward the summer’s political gatherings. Others included Citigroup (which spent a total of $600,000 on the conventions), Goldman Sachs (which spent $505,000), Ford Motor Co. ($100,000 to each convention) and Bank of America (which spent $100,000, entirely on the Democratic convention). The federal government took over Freddie Mac just weeks after the mortgage buyer split half a million dollars between the two conventions.

The Democratic convention benefited from labor contributions.The drug industry was the top spender, splitting its contributions nearly evenly between the two conventions. However, compuater and Internet companies, along with individuals working int he industry gave $4.1 million to the GOP convention compared to $3.1 million to the Democrats.

All in all, it’s a lot of cash from a lot of folks who now find themselves pleading their financial cases in Washington. And these totals don’t even include the unreported amounts that special interests poured into private parties to entertain members of Congress and staffers while they were conventioneering. If there had been disclosure of this information at the time of the parties, how would that have affected the path of bailout legislation in Congress?

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Democratic convention Republican convention • POSTED - 10.17.08 BY nancy

Convention host committees ‘fess up

Long after the partying is over, the host committees for the Democratic convention in Denver and the GOP convention in Minneapolis/St Paul have filed their disclosure forms with the U.S. Federal Election Commission on their donors. The Democrats report raising $60,966,482 for their convention; the Republicans,$51,229,299 for theirs. The Denver host committee’s report is here and the Minneapolis/St. Paul host committee’s report is here.

Here’s the Minneapolis Star Tribune on the GOP donors:

Seven Minnesota companies gave a million dollars or more to help stage the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities last month.

Target Corp. and Best Buy led the local pack, offering $3 million and $2.25 million respectively. US Bank gave $1.05 million and UnitedHealth Group gave $1.5 million. Others in the million-dollar club included Pentair Corp., St. Jude Medical, 3M Company and Travelers. Six other firms located outside Minnesota also tossed in more than a million dollars.

According to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Host Committee’s fundraising report, filed with the Federal Election Commission late Wednesday, the committee took in more than $51 million, donated by corporations and individuals. It has spent more than $46 million so far on the convention, and has about another $1 million in remaining debts.

And here’s the Denver Post on the donors to the Democratic convention:

The majority of the corporate donations came from outside the state, the host committee said, but local donors included a little more than $1 million from Xcel Energy; $1 million from Forest City Stapleton, a Denver-based developer; $510,000 from Hensel Phelps Construction Co., which is building the city’s new justice center and built the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Building; and more than $800,000 from Qwest.

The cash raised from these corporate donors does not include all the partying expenses at the conventions.  Corporate and special interest donors spent additional money, which is not required to be reported, for hundreds of private parties hosted during the conventions.

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PARTYFINDER™ Hints

Beneficiary: congressional candidate, lawmaker, or entity which collects funds raised at party

Host: person who is hosting party-often, but not always, a registered federal lobbyist

Venue Name: where the party is

Entertainment Type: type of gathering, such as "breakfast," "ski trip," "bowling"

Other Lawmakers Mentioned: lawmakers mentioned on invitation who are used as a draw for the event

Sunlight's Party Time is a project to track parties for members of Congress or congressional candidates that happen all year round in Washington, D.C. and beyond.

We also post information we receive about parties where members of Congress are expected to participate—such as convention or inaugural parties.

Since we don't hear about all the parties, you can also tell us if you know where the party is and we don't.