Super Bowl Party in Indianapolis – Rep. John Conyers, Jr. D-Mich., and America Forward PAC is scheduled to head to Super Bowl XLVI to watch the New York Giants go against the New England Patriots. The $5,000 super fan package includes one Super bowl ticket and two tickets to attend a luncheon.

Last year, the Moving America Forward PAC hosted a Super Bowl XLIV game and & Luncheon in Miami.

Huskies vs. Hoyas – On Wednesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is scheduled to be at a fundraiser at the Verizon Center to watch the UConn Huskies take on the Georgetown Hoyas.  To attend the fundraiser and game, the suggested contribution is $1,500. According to the Ticketmaster website, there are still tickets available for $41.30, including fee.

Birthday Celebration – Rep. Larry Kissell, D-N.C., is scheduled to have a birthday reception on Tuesday, with Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C.  The suggested contribution to attend the birthday celebration starts at $5,000 to host and $500 for individual tickets.

Money Makin’ Thursday – According to Party Time records, Thursday will be busy day for both sides of the aisle. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., is scheduled to have a reception with special guest Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis. The Tuesday Group PAC is also scheduled to have a reception in the evening. After checking to see if the groundhog will see its shadow, Rep. Mark Critz, D-Pa. is scheduled to have a Groundhog Day breakfast.  The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will be hosting the Good Life Council Lunch with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

Coffee and Bagels – The RAD-PAC, associated with the American College of Radiology, is scheduled to host a Coffee and Bagels Meet and Greet with Republican Reps. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., and Tom Price,R-Ga., M.D.

Beer: it’s not just for diffusing racial tensions. It’s also for political fundraising. As are wine, bourbon, cocktails, margaritas, and mojitos–all used as attractions for recent fundraisers by members of Congress, according to our Party Time database. It’s as if lawmakers and lobbyists are living out the famous lines of the George Thorogood song: “One bourbon, one scotch, one beer.”

Tomorrow President Barack Obama is welcoming Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley to the White House, where they’re planning to quaff some suds. It’s an an attempt to put to rest the controversy over Gates’ recent arrest by Crowley and Obama’s comments soon thereafter.

Meanwhile, lawmakers routinely count on the relaxing properties of alcohol to get donors to open their wallets. But the drinks don’t come cheap.

Tonight alone Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is charging $5,000 for those who want to sponsor his “Beers, Brats, Wines, and Squeaky Cheese” fundraiser at the UPS Townhouse. There’s no mention on the invite of whether he’ll be doling out alka seltzer. Showing that beer has bipartisan appeal, Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK) tonight hosts a “Beer Tasting and Dinner” at Brasserie Beck, proceeds going to his leadership PAC, the Great American Fund. The event costs $1,500 for a PAC, $500 for an individual.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) apparently has an annual Kentucky bourbon tasting–this year marked his third. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) likes to combine cocktails and cigars. Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) goes for margaritas and mojitos (and those events were just one day apart). Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA) represents the Pittsburgh, a beer sort of place, but nevertheless planned a wine tasting at Sonoma.

Check out our map for recent fundraisers featuring alcohol. If you click on the pins, you’ll find links to the invitations.

View Larger Map

As the members of the House Ways and Means Committee prepare to take up the health care reform debate next month, they are busy fundraising from health care lobbyists representing such companies as Eli Lilly, the American Hospital Association, and Johnson & Johnson.

Party Time has identified at least 124 fundraising events in 2009 alone for members of this powerful committee. Most invitations do not contain information about hosts or who might be attending. However, those that do provide a tantalizing glimpse of what the guest lists are like at these private events.

For example:

• Using the same watermark background of an image of the Capitol, a gaggle of nine lobbyists hosted one event for Chairman Rangel (a Valentine’s day bash breakfast on February 12) and is planning another on June 10 for Rep. Richard Neal, a Democrat from Massachusetts (reception and dinner). All but one of these hosts lobby for Ernst & Young–Nick Giordano, LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, Francis Grab Dave Koshgarian, Dick Meltzer, Jeff Petrich, Bobby Rozen, and Holly Bode–where they represent such clients as Aetna Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and Health Care Service Corp. The ninth, Tom Jolly, includes AFLAC Inc. among his clients. Rangel has collected $2.3 million in campaign contributions over the course of his congressional career from the health care sector. Neal has gotten more than $500,000.
  
• On April 22, lobbyists representing major drug companies were among the hosts of a dinner at Arcadiana for Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin. Rebecca Anderson, Chris Hatcher, and Susan Hirshmann all lobby for Wiliams & Jensen, where they represent such clients as Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca Inc., Novartis, Pfizer, and Wyeth. Ryan has collected more than $155,000 from the pharmaceutical industry during his years in Congress.
• Reps. Allyson Schwartz, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, and John Yarmuth, a Democrat from Kentucky, have both been wined and dined this year by Fred Graefe and Rita Norton. Graefe represents a host of health care interests, including Invacare Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp, and the Federation of American Hospitals. Norton lobbies for AmerisourceBergen Corp. Schwartz has collected more than $857,000 in campaign contributions from health care interests for her elections; Yarmuth, more than $257,000.

As we noted in our first post last week on parties for members of key health care committees, on parties for members of the Senate Finance Committee, it is nearly impossible to find out who attends these fundraising events. Lawmakers report their campaign contributions only once every three months. Even then, while it is possible to look for clusters of contributions around particular dates, there’s no way definitively to link contributions to a particular event unless one confirms it with the donor or campaign. Meanwhile, new Federal Election Commission rules on disclosing “bundles” of contributions are so weak that only one bundler disclosed by the first deadline.

[Thanks to Party Time intern Josh Heath for help researching this post.]

Here are the parties for members of the House Ways & Means Committee: