With the end of the second quarter on the horizon, lawmakers are scheduling more than the usual number of fundraisers to get in as much campaign cash as they can before June 30. Party Time has received 162 invitations to congressional fundraisers scheduled for the last ten days of June.

These events run the gamut from the usual dinners and receptions to Rep. Rush Holt’s, D-N.J., 7th Annual Jeopardy Event. Attendees of the event will have to pay at least $250 for the honor of being bested by 5-time Jeopardy Champion Holt, a man who has even beaten IBM supercomputer Watson.

For those more interested in outdoor competition, two senators and their leadership PACs will be hosting golf events. On June 20, Sen. Richard Bur, R-N.C., and his Next Century PAC will be hitting the links at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainsville VA. The price to tee off will range from $1,000 to $2,5000. From June 24 to June 26, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., will be on the greens at the Harbourtown Golf Course in St. Michaels, Maryland. Contributions will run $5,000 and be made to Cardin’s leadership PAC, LEGPAC.

Less than a month after her victory in the special election for New York’s 26th district, Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., will be the beneficiary of a fundraiser for her 2012 re-election campaign. The fundraiser will be held on June 21 at the home of fellow New York Democratic representative Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. Also present at the event to welcome Hochul into the fold will be freshmen Democratic representatives Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., and Terri Sewell, D-Ala. Listed contributions start at $250 and top out at $5,000.

Democrats will also be fundraising for another candidate in a special congressional election. A reception benefitting Janice Hahn, the Democrat in the special election to replace Jane Harman of California, is scheduled at the Democratic National Headquarters on June 22. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is headlining the event along with the Democratic house leadership including Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. The invitation lists nineteen Democratic members of the California congressional delegation who will be there in support of the candidate as well.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, write-in-Alaska, is still the top Republican on the Senate Energy committee even as she runs to retain her seat after losing the G.O.P. primary to Tea Party-powered rival Joe Miller, but lobbyists for interests regulated by her committee are raising money for a senator in the running to be her successor.

Next week, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., – is set to hold a fundraiser, though he’s not up for re-election in 2010. On the invitation to Barrasso’s event, at least three energy industry lobbyists are listed as hosts. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who with Barrasso are the next-ranking Republicans on the Energy Committee, is also holding an event, headlined by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Burr faces voters this November.

Burr and Barrasso, like the woman they might succeed, have benefited from campaign contributions from industries they oversee. As the ranking member, Murkowski has amassed over $800,000 in campaign donations from the energy and natural resources sector, trumping all other sectors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Burr and Barrasso have received a few hundred thousand dollars less, and both have received more support from other sectors.

Both senators have a major energy company in their home states – Alpha Natural Resources (which merged with Foundation Coal) in Barrasso’s Wyoming and Duke Energy in Burr’s North Carolina — that are among their biggest campaign contributors, according to CRP.

Burr’s $2,000-per-PAC fundraiser is at the Capitol Hill eatery Johnny’s Half Shell while Barrasso is holding his annual Italian buffet event, asking donors for between $250 and $2,500, at UPS’s Hill townhouse. Two coal industry lobbyists are listed as hosts on the invitation, including one that  has lobbied on clean coal issues that Barrasso has promoted in the Senate. David DiStefano lobbied this year for Baard Energy on “energy legislation related to coal-to-liquid fuels,” according to his lobbyist disclosure form.  The company is developing a coal liquefaction plant in Ohio. The other industry lobbyist is Mark Valente of North American Coal.

Barrasso has been a supporter of clean coal technology, writing a letter criticizing a White House official for questioning the technology’s viability. He was also a co-sponsor of the Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2007.

Alpha Natural Resources – which merged with Foundation Coal, Barrasso’s second largest campaign donor  – has lobbied for a federal loan program for “qualifying coal-to-liquids” facilities as well as “all provisions providing incentives for investment in carbon capture and sequestration.” The company operates mines in Wyoming. Barrasso has introduced a bill to authorize the Secretary of Energy to give financial rewards for carbon capture technology.

Greg Pensabene, another host for Barrasso’s Italian buffet, lobbies for Anadarko Petroleum, part owner of the well drilled by the infamous Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which exploded causing a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Barrasso has criticized Senate Democrats for removing the oil spill liability cap entirely; he said doing so would create a monopoly for the biggest oil companies. On the Senate floor he disagreed with the “overly broad drilling moratorium that’s been imposed by the Obama Administration.”

He added that the oil spill commission was “stacked with people who philosophically oppose offshore exploration.”

Barrasso has tried to establish a separate, bipartisan commission by introducing an amendment to the energy committee’s Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 2010. Pensabene reported lobbying on that bill.

Burr, who planned at least three fundraisers this week, has raised nine times more money than his challenger, and his race is considered “likely Republican” by the Cook Political Report.

If Burr is offered the energy panel ranking position, he would have to step down as ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, something he told The Hill he would “seriously consider.”

Republicans elected not to remove Murkowski from top energy post since they expect her to lose in November, CNN reported. However, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did push Murkowski to relinquish her spot as vice-chair of the Senate Republican Conference after she decided to run a write-in campaign.

With the summer recess fast approaching on Aug. 9, lawmakers are busy trying to get in D.C. fundraisers while they can–whether or not they are in competitive races. Of the 146 fundraisers (and counting, as new events are added to our database daily) on file at Party Time for last week and this, some 17 are for  candidates running in races rated as “toss up” by the Cook Political Report, while 17 more are rated “lean Democratic” or “lean GOP.” You can see a full list of D.C. fundraisers over this two week period that we have on file by clicking here or see the embedded spreadsheet below.

Among the fundraisers on the current list is the dinner and reception for Kentucky senatorial candidate Rand Paul, which we wrote about last week. Also on the list is this “Krispy Kreme breakfast” on August 4 for Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., at the offices of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Burr began his reelection race as one of the most vulnerable incumbents; however since then his political stock has  risen, and this recent poll shows him with a lead over Democratic opponent Elaine Marshall. He is winning the money race in a big way, having raised $9.2 million to Marshall’s $1.1 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.  Our Party Time database contains 54 parties for the senator dating back to 2008. In March we wrote about Burr here, reporting how many of his top campaign contributors are clients of the D.C. lobbyists who host his fundraising events.

Another event is this breakfast for Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., on July 28 at The Monocole, hosted by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Teamster PACs. Historically, labor unions have provided him more campaign cash than any other sector. In May, a long list of transportation related unions hosted this fundraiser for the congressman, who serves on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Teague will be facing Steve Pearce, who held the same seat before running for Senate and losing. Many of Pearce’s top contributors come from the energy industry.

Fundraising plans don’t always come through. This reception for Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-Fla., was scheduled for July 27 at the offices of Navigators Global–but in the end was canceled, according to one of the hosts, Meghan Johnson, a lobbyist for the firm. Johnson is one of a group of lobbyists reportedly being tapped by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to help fundraise and strategize for candidates facing tough races, according to Roll Call. The DCCC has reserved ad time for Kosmas, according to this AP report. Johnson would not comment on why the event was canceled.

Party Time provides this list as a resource for reporters and others interested in following congressional fundraising. When we receive information that an event is canceled or postponed, we note that in our database, but we can not confirm every event. See the list here and also below.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., formally announced his reelection bid on Feb. 22, 2010, with an open house at his Winston-Salem campaign headquarters, but the first term member has been raising money since he took office.  Since January 2009 alone, he and his campaign have sent out at least 38 invitations to fundraisers, according to our Party Time database, the great majority of them in Washington, D.C. The events have helped him raise a total of $6.7 million, $4.3 million of which he still has in the bank.

Lobbyists and Political Action Committees (PACs), some of whom represent Burr’s biggest donors, are hosts of many of these functions. One upcoming event—scheduled for March 17—lists 25 hosts alone. These include Robert Chamberlin of McBee Strategic Consulting, whose clients include FedEx Corp, a top donor to Burr’s campaign fund, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Ed Kutler, a lobbyist for Clark & Weinstock, represents another top campaign donor, AmerisourceBergen. Another host is Charles Symington, who represents the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, a top donor to Burr’s leadership PAC, the Next Century Fund.

In all, half of the top 20 donors to Burr’s campaign from 2005-2010 are represented by lobbyists or PACs hosting fundraising events for the senator, including Reynolds American, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and GlaxoSmithKline. The records do not reveal whether employees of these companies or PACs actually attended the events. Though lobbyists and lobbying firms were frequently listed in Burr’s fundraising invitations, the campaign has not identified any bundled contributions raised by lobbyists to the Federal Elections Commission. The requirements for reporting bundled contributions are weak, and are easily avoided.

Of the 38 parties that raised money for Burr since January 2009, 33 of them were held in Washington, D.C., and featured 54 registered lobbyists and 21 PACs as hosts—all representing interests with business before Congress. These lobbyists and PACs have collectively given Burr’s campaign committee directly more than $106,000 in contributions, and provided opportunities for access for other donors.

Burr began 2009 as one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents, with low approval ratings in the Tarheel state, but recent polling numbers show him less vulnerable than he had been. Politico pegged Burr’s race a “bellwether” for the national zeitgeist—if things seem to be swinging the GOP’s way, he “shouldn’t have much trouble winning a second term.” A recent Rasmussen poll shows he leads both of his potential Democratic rivals by wide margins. Cook Political Report currently lists the VA race as “likely Republican.”

Though his political fortunes have changed, Burr continues to hold fundraising events at a prodigious pace, attracting a wide range of Washington insiders to his campaign events:

·    Last March, nine lobbyists from the Podesta Group broke from the Democratic proclivities of their boss, Tony Podesta, and were hosts for donors invited to a breakfast with Burr. Among the companies some of them represent, which are donors to Burr: Genzyme, Tyco International, and General Electric. Collectively, these lobbyists gave Burr $5,500, spread over the period from March to June. (The nine lobbyists are: Sharon Cohen, Kimberley Fritts, Randall Gerard, Lauren Maddox, David Marin, Elizabeth Morra, John Scofield, John Shank, and Missi Tessier.)

·    Four lobbyists from BGR Holding, whose president, Bob Wood, used to work for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, hosted this breakfast on June 11 for the senator. Together, the lobbyists represent a long list of clients, including such Burr top donors as GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer Inc. Of the four lobbyists–Bob Wood, Jennifer Larkin, Lukawski, Loren Monroe, Mary-Lacey Reuther–Lukawski and Reuther each contributed $500 to Burr on June 29, 2009.

·    On June 24, several lobbyists representing Con-way, the trucking firm, hosted a breakfast for Burr; also listed as hosts were the PACs for the lobbying firm hired by the company, Venable LLP, and the company itself, which have each given Burr $2,500. Jim Burnley and John O’Neil both represent Con-Way at Venable; Randy Mullett (see his bio here) is  vice president of government relations and government affairs for the company. The fourth host, Diann Howland, lobbies for the American Benefits Council, where she focuses on benefits issues. She’s listed as giving the senator $1,000 on June 29. Conway hired Venable in part to lobby on pension issues.

Burr’s office did not return phone calls seeking information about these fundraisers.

Over the course of 2009–the first full calendar year that the Party Time website has been in existence–we’ve collected and posted more than 3,660 invitations to congressional fundraisers and parties. That’s an average of 10 for every day of the year, 70 per week, and more than 300 per month.

We don’t know what portion this represents of all the parties that occur. We do know it’s not all of them. For example, we’ve been successful in collecting weekly lists of parties from three out of four of political party committees–the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). However, despite repeated attempts to secure the information, we’re missing the roster from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). (We’ll keep trying.)

Nevertheless, Party Time represents the most robust collection of these invitations that have ever been collected and made available to the public in a database. So, with a big caveat that these totals reflect what we have in our data, which are incomplete, here’s what we saw in 2009.

1. Top Congressional Partiers. The members of Congress who have the most parties listed in our database are: 1. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), with 35; 2. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), 34; 3. Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK), 33; 4. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), with 30; and 5.  Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), 29.

2. Will party for others. The lawmakers who appear most often on other candidates’ invitations as a draw for donors looks like a who’s who of the Congressional leadership: 1. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), with 47; 2. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), with 35; 3. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), with 32 (Cornyn is chairman of the NRSC); 4. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), with 30; and 5. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), with 29.

3. Most generous hosts. The lobbyists whose names appear most often on our invitations as hosts are: 1. Dan Gans, Polaris Government Relations, with 29; 2. Jocelyn Hong (Twenty-First Century Group), with 22;  3. Tim Rupli, (Timothy R. Rupli & Associates) with 19 (Also check out all the party’s at Rupli’s Capitol Hill townhouse.); 4. Tony Podesta (Podesta Group), with 14; and Louis Dupart (Normandy Group), with 14. Keep in mind that the names of hosts in our database are not yet standardized, and with that work done, other lobbyists might rise to the top.

4. The month most partied: June. We’ve got 608 invitations to congressional fundraisers in June, the most of any month. The next runner up is March, with 529, and then September, with 446. Fundraising tends to peak in these months because they mark the end of a quarter. Candidates  want to report big numbers to the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) to intimidate any potential challengers.

5. Most popular partying spots. 1. Capitol Hill Club, 439; 2. Johnny’s Half Shell, 229; 3. National Democratic Club Townhouse, 159; 4. Charlie Palmer Steak, 147; and 5. Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar, 125. This list looks very similar to last year’s, showing that congressional partiers are creatures of habit. (And convenience–these locations are a hop, skip, or a jump away from their offices on Capitol Hill.)

Last night the Huffington Post’s Arthur Delaney attempted to get into the “health care roundtable” fundraiser thrown by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) that we blogged about yesterday.The fundraiser was slated to feature three key senators–Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Richard Burr (R-NC).

Grassley and Enzi represent one-third of the half dozen senators who are now trying to hammer out a compromise on health care reform in a Senate Finance Committee conference room. All three are members of key health care committees, and have big health care donors.

Delaney wasn’t allowed in to the festivities:

An NRSC staffer said the event was closed to reporters. Asked if we could gain entrance for $2,000, the staffer reiterated that the event was closed.

However, he did get to talk to some of the attendees:

Some guests who walked by were kind enough to speak on the record, including Ed Lenz of the American Staffing Association. Lenz said he was hoping to get a sense from the senators of what was happening with the bill.

“It’s part of our system. It’s part of free speech,” he said. “There are people from all walks of life and all strata of society who have opportunities to have their voices heard.”

Of course in this case, being heard cost each attendee at least $2,000.

About three dozen lucky donors have the chance to gather at Charlie Palmer steakhouse tonight for a “roundtable on health care issues” featuring Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Richard Burr (R-NC)–all of whom raise big bucks from the health care industry and sit on key health care committees.

A seat at the roundtable–only 35 available–costs a PAC $2,000, payable to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. A seat at the more exclusive dinner costs a PAC $5,000, and only 20 seats are available.

The national health care debate is at a key point, with Senate leaders hoping to complete a bill before the August recess. At the time of this posting, none of the senators’ offices had returned calls requesting information about tonight’s event.

Sen. Grassley’s top lifetime donors include health professionals, the insurance industry, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and nursing homes, and lobbyists. He is the ranking minority member of on the Senate Finance Committee. (We blogged here about a Grassley fundraiser hosted by an alternative health care lobbyist.) Grassley has gained fame recently for his idiosyncratic tweets, many on health care.

Sen. Enzi, who sits on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee, counts the pharmaceutical industry and health professionals as his top most generous lifetime donors. The HELP committee approved a health care reform bill on July 15 along party lines.

Sen. Burr’s top all-time donor is the pharmaceutical industry.  He also sits on the Senate HELP committee, and voted against the health care reform bill.

Edited  at 4:14 p.m. Eastern to add: This just in from Sen. Enzi’s press secretary, about the senator’s attendance at the health care roundtable tonight:

Senator Enzi attends numerous NRSC events throughout the year. Since he is knowledgeable about health care, being the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee ranking member, organizers asked him to speak on that topic. He agreed. Health care is #1 on the country’s agenda right now. It’s important and Senator Enzi is happy to explain this issue from his point of view whether it be at the NRSC or the Lions Club in Lander, Wyoming. Either place, he would say the same thing. As for the use of any money, that’s up to the NRSC.

This weekend features a couple of getaways from the city offered by lawmakers seeking cash for their leadership PACs.

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) will be hosting a “Pacific Northwest Summer Retreat” at the Suquamish Clearwater Casino in Washington state. Guests can look forward to sailing, kayaking (with the Congressman!), gambling and a ‘legislative update breakfast.’ Contributions are to be made out to his New Apollo Energy PAC–named for the New Apollo Energy Act he and 14 other representatives introduced in the House on June 9, 2005.

The second fundraiser will be hosted by House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA). Contributions are to be made out to the joint fundraising committee Americans for a Conservative Course. The invitation states that all donations will then be equally distributed between the four leadership committees: the Freedom Project (Boehner), For America’s Republican Majority (Latham), the Next Century Fund (Burr), and the Republican Majority Fund (Chambliss).

Click here for an updated look at fundraising parties for members of the Senate Health, Education, and Labor Committee, which approved a massive health care reform bill this morning on a party-line vote. As we wrote about previously, a number of these parties were hosted by health care lobbyists:

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We’ve found invitations for at least 28 parties this year for members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, of which several can be linked directly to health care industry lobbyists. (This is part of a series we’ve been running on parties for members of key health care committees.) These include:

• Nine lobbyists from the Podesta Group broke from their boss, Tony Podesta’s Democratic proclivities and invited donors to a breakfast with Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). Among the companies some of them represent: Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Roche Group, and Genzyme Corp. Burr’s gotten more than $2 million in campaign contributions from the health care sector for his campaigns. (The nine lobbyists are: Sharon Cohen, Kimberley Fritts, Randall Gerard, Lauren Maddox, David Marin, Elizabeth Morra, John Scofield, John Shank, and Missi Tessier.)
• A half dozen lobbyists for the firm Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti Inc.–Jamie Brown, Colette Desmarais, Bruce Mehlman, Elise Pickering, Dean Rosen, and Alex Vogel–planned a fundraising breakfast on March 10 for Sen. Johnny Isakson. Their clients include Abbott Laboratories, America’s Health Insurance Plans, and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. Isakson has collected more than $855,000 in campaign contributions from health care interests for his campaigns.
• Back in February, lobbyists for Fabiani & Co. organized another Isakson fundraiser, this one featuring “special guest” –Sen. Burr. Jim Fabiani and Stephen Conafay represent such clients as Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Braincells Inc., and Acorda Therapeutics.

[Thanks to intern Josh Heath who helped research this post.]