Sen. John Cornyn was scheduled as a “special guest” at a November 20 fundraiser for Rob Portman, also featuring former Secretary of State George Schultz. The day before he was listed at another Portman event, a dinner, featuring another former Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice.

Portman is running for an open seat in Ohio; Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has previously pledged that the NRSC would not spend money in contested primaries or open seat race. However, as we blogged earlier, Cornyn also showed up on a fundraiser for Arkansas Senate candidate Gilbert Baker, scheduled for Nov. 19–the same day as one of the Portman fundraisers. At the time, a spokesman said he was participating as a senator rather than as chairman of the committee.

(Josh Heath contributed to this post.)

From this report, it appears that the GOP firmament is lining up behind Arkansas Senate candidate Gilbert Baker, who is running in a hotly contested GOP primary. This is despite a promise from Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (NRSC) that the party would not get involved in primaries.

The AP got hold of  a fundraising invitation (not in our database yet) for November 19 at NRSC headquarters, that shows Cornyn as a host of the event, along with Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and David Vitter of Louisiana.

An NRSC spokesman told The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder that Cornyn is participating in the event in his personal capacity as a senator, not as chairman.

As the 2010 elections heat up, it will be interesting to see how fundraising invitations offer clues to other contested primary races, such as the one in my neighborhood pitting incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet against challenger Andrew Romonoff, as well as the battle between Sen. Arlen Specter and Joe Sestek in Pennsylvania.

(hat tip to Micah Sifry)