Deficit panel-watching lobbyists throwing fundraiser for Orrin Hatch. Four lobbyists at Capitol Tax Partners, all with previous posts on the Senate Finance Committee, are hosting Hatch, R-Utah, the ranking Republican on the committee, for breakfast on Thursday. One of them, Lawrence Willcox, also used to be the senior advisor to the deficit panel’s Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and another, Lindsay Hooper, worked on the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984.

The super committee is considering tackling tax reform, and Capitol Tax Partners lobbies on tax issues for some of nation’s biggest banks, the Federation of American Hospitals, and Amgen, all with stakes in the super committee’s work. Last week, Hatch and the Finance Committee Republicans submitted their formal recommendations to the panel, focusing on Medicare and Medicaid cuts.

Scott Brown hopes third event is a charm. For the third time in eight days, Brown, R-Mass., will hold an event catering to D.C. insiders and this one, being at The Dubliner, might just be Irish-themed. The Wednesday pub reception is for his leadership PAC, and seeks between $250 and $2,500 per head.

Brown will likely be apart of one of 2012’s most closely watched Senate races, with the leading Democrat in the race being consumer advocate and Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, who is popular with liberals.

The Realtors’ PAC is keeping busy, hosting at least its fourth congressional fundraiser this month. On Thursday it’s Sen. Kay Hagan’s, D-N.C., turn. NAR’s PAC wants to ensure that the super committee lays off the mortgage interest tax deduction, which was cut by the Senate’s Gang of Six in its deficit plan.

Qualcomm officials fete Feinstein. The company’s VP for Government Affairs, Greg Farmer, is opening up his home for a Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., fundraiser Thursday, which also features another company lobbyist, Holly Fechner. Among the issues on the telecom company’s radar is allocating more spectrum for mobile broadband, which President Obama has proposed in his American Jobs Act and the super committee is reportedly considering.

Feinstein faces re-election in 2012, and recently injected $5 million of her own into her campaign after a political consultant embezzled nearly $4.7 million from her account.

Thursday’s breakfast asks for between $1,000 and $5,000 from donors.

Looking to end the second quarter of 2011 on a high note, the Democratic Party has three high-dollar fundraisers scheduled for the end of June. Events will be held to benefit the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Women’s Senate Network of the DSCC.

The first scheduled event is the “Friends on the Hill Dinner” tonight. The dinner at the St. Regis Hotel will benefit the DSCC with suggested individual donations of $10,000. The main draw for this fundraiser will undoubtedly be the listed hosts: chiefs of staff to leading Democratic senators, including Harry Reid, D-Nev., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., among others.

Congressional staffers have been featured guests at other political fundraisers–earlier this year, for example, Party Time reported on two separate events hosted by chiefs of staff to Democratic House members. And last year, Party Time highlighted a fundraiser featuring a new chief of staff to a Republican senator as the main draw.

According to the Senate Ethics Manual from the 108th Congress (seemingly the last to have been published online), Senate Rule 41.1 prohibits employees of the Senate from soliciting, receiving, or having custody of campaign funds unless they hold one of three designations. The Senate offices of Sens. Murray and Durbin confirmed that their chiefs of staff are in fact designated to handle campaign funds but calls made to the offices of the other senators were not returned by the time of this post.

On June 21, the Women’s Senate Network of the DSCC will hold a reception and dinner to benefit those members of their network up for re-election in 2012. Listed contributions range from $1,000 to attend only the reception to $30,800 for the host committee. Those contributions will be made to the DSCC, with some funds directed to Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., all of whom will be up for re-election in the next campaign cycle.

The next night the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will have its turn when it holds a fundraiser honoring Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and John Lewis, D-Ga. Rep. Hoyer is celebrating his 30th year in Congress this year while Rep. Lewis is celebrating his 25th. While both representatives have individual fundraisers scheduled this month celebrating their feats of legislative longevity, this event will celebrate benefit the DCCC as a whole. Contributions start at $1,000 for an individual ticket while the honor of being a PAC host for the event will require a contribution of $15,000.

“Only two events left this quarter and Dianne Feinstein needs your help!” trumpets this invitation for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is not up for reelection until 2012. It’s another great example of how politicians use the end of the quarter, on March 31, as an excuse to pile up dollars, whether they are running or not, as we blogged here yesterday. Feinstein already has $3.1 million cash on hand toward her next race, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is canceling a fundraiser this Wednesday after a flap when it became public that the lobbyist host, Heather Podesta, had advertised the work of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as the “first course” at the event. (Heather and her husband, Tony, are prolific fundraisers.)

Podesta reportedly wrote in an e-mail note attached to the formal invitation that donors who gave between $1,000 and $2,500 could order up “the Select Committee on Intelligence for the first course.” (We have mention of the event in our database, but not the actual email reported in the press.)

Feinstein’s spokesperson explained the cancellation this way:

“It was obvious that this would be subject to misinterpretation by some, and it was canceled to avoid any misinterpretation,” said Gil Duran, a spokesman for the senator. “No contributions were received, so there is nothing to return.”

Funny what a little sunlight will do. Of course it’s extremely common for fundraising invitations to include mention of lawmakers’ committee assignments.

Check out this event today for Rep. Pete King (R-NY), pointing out that he’s ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee and also serves on the House Financial Services Committee.

And this one, also for an event today, for Sen. Dan Boren (D-OK) mentions that he’s a member of the Blue Dog Coalition–and the House Committee on Natural Resources & Select Intelligence.

The fact is, if every politician who flagged his or her committee assignments were to cancel their fundraisers–well, there wouldn’t be many fundraisers.