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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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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. (read more)

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.