The outlet ProPublica reports on its investigation into which lawmakers attended the Super Bowl this year, and how they managed to get their tickets, here. Their basic finding? That most of the congressional partying at such events stays "out of the limelight." We were happy to partner with ProPublica in this distributed reporting effort, and glad to see them follow up on the Super Bowl fundraising invitations we posted here at Party Time.

Some key obvservations from  ProPublica:

What we learned from this exercise is that even when the venue is America’s most public sports spectacle, politicians largely succeed in remaining invisible, especially when their activities include fundraising. It quickly became apparent that they feel they’re entitled to privacy when they’re accepting campaign money from contributors.

and:

The Super Bowl presents a special opportunity, because tickets to the game aren’t sold to the general public. A small number—1,000 this year—are sold to people who enter and win a lottery the league conducts. The rest are distributed at face value (either $800 or $1,000 this year) by the NFL and its 32 member teams as they see fit, under a shroud of secrecy.

Most fans are forced to get their tickets on Web sites like StubHub, where a ticket for the nosebleed seats sold for about $1,800. Yet lawmakers like Conyers, Meeks and Meek have no trouble getting tickets, not only for their personal use but also to exchange for contributions that are four or five times the face value of the tickets.

ProPublica also points out that even when lawmakers report their expenses many weeks in the future, it's unlikely we'll be able to find out how much their campaigns spent on Super Bowl tickets:

At some point, depending on whether they file monthly, quarterly or semi-annually, anyone in Congress who used campaign or leadership PAC money to pay for their tickets will have to file a campaign finance report listing the expenditure. But it might be impossible to find. The line giving the reason for the expense is unlikely to say “to pay for Super Bowl tickets.” More likely, it will say something vague like “fundraising expense.”

Read more at ProPublica.org.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who faces a tough re-election race back home in Nevada, will be doing a fundraising sweep through California mid-month.

First stop is a cocktail reception on Feb. 15 at the home of George and Judy Marcus in San Francisco. Marcus is the founder and chairman of the real estate giant Marcus & Millichap Company, as well as chairman of the Essex Property Trust, and is a generous donor to Democrats.

The next day, attorney Joseph M. Alioto, son of former San Francisco mayor Joseph L. Alioto, will be hosting a breakfast at the Fairmount hotel. He gave $28,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 2008 elections.

Last is a cocktail reception on Feb. 16 at the home of Bruce and Norah Broillet in Bel Air. Broillet is an attorney in Santa Monica, and was a bundler for John Edwards in his failed presidential bid. Broillet gave Reid a contribution of $2,000 in July.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hosts a breakfast briefing this morning with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), both members of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Bennet is facing a primary challenge this year, but first quarter reports showed him outraising his opponent, Andrew Romanoff, by a ratio of 3.5 to 1. Fifty-eight percent of the cash he collects in large individual contributions comes from out of state. Merkley is not up for reelection this year.

The monthly DSCC breakfasts are open to any donor who gives at least $5,000 to the committee per year, according to the invitation.

This just came in from a trusted source: not an invitation, per se, but an invitation to be listed on an invitation from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney--widely seen as a frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, which provides a window on to how these events are organized.

Romney was trolling (deadline was yesterday) for hosts and co-hosts for an event benefiting his Political Action Committee,  Free & Strong America PAC, on Feb. 11, for bowling at Lucky Strike Lanes. His ask: raise or contribute $1,000 to be a host, $500 to be a co-host.

Romney has used the PAC to contribute to such candidates as the new senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, (Romney takes credit for Brown's win here) as well as GOP leaders such as House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)

I want you to be among the first to know about an upcoming event for the Free and Strong America PAC, featuring Gov. Romney.  On Wednesday, February 17th, Mitt will be in DC and is doing an event for his PAC at 7:00 pm.

I hope you will consider being a Host or Co-Host for this fun event – Bowling with Mitt.  The money raised will go toward the important efforts of Mitt's Free and Strong America PAC to promote conservative causes and help Republican candidates in 2010.

Are you able to serve as a Host or Co-Host (and have your name listed on the invitation) for the "Bowling with Mitt" event on February 17th? The price to attend will be $150/person, and we are asking Hosts to raise or contribute $1,000 and Co-Hosts to raise or contribute $500.  If you are interested, please e-mail Gretchen Moss at gretchen@gretchenmoss.com, and let us know how you would like your name listed on the invitation. The deadline for getting names on the initial invitation is Monday, February 1st at 5:00 PM.  Please also forward this e-mail to any others that you think may be interested in Hosting or Co-Hosting.  Complete Event details are below:

Bowling with Mitt

and Celebrity Bowlers

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

7:00 pm

Lucky Strike Lanes

Gallery Place

701 7th Street NW
Second Floor

Washington, DC, 20001

Host: Give or raise $1,000

Co-Host: Give or raise $500

Attend: $150

Contributions are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Federal law requires us to obtain and report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer for each individual whose contributions aggregate in excess of $200 per calendar year. By law, the maximum amount an individual may contribute is $5,000 ($10,000 per couple) per calendar year. PACs may also contribute $5,000 per calendar year. Contributions by corporations, foreign nationals (non-green card holders), labor unions, federal government contractors, and minors under the age of 16 are prohibited.

In this election year, we're creating new ways for you to get Party Time congressional fundraiser data on to your Web site.

API

For those with programming backgrounds, 0ur new API feed pulls Party Time data in "JSON" format. You can find the feed here: http://politicalpartytime.org/json/N00009668/. The last number represents a candidateID. You can determine a candidate ID by going to his or her profile page on Political Party Time. (IDs originate from the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) -- the nation's authority on campaign finance data.) This is the feed that's now powering Party Time information at CRP, which we announced yesterday.

RSS

You can find the RSS feed for Party Time here: http://politicalpartytime.org/feeds/pol/N00009668/

CSV

If you're less programming inclined, but like to play with spreadsheets, you can download a data dump for Party Time congressional fundraisers here.

relational zip

And as a relational "zip" file here.

You can get more details in the "bulk data" section of our Web site here.

Have fun, and please drop us a line if you are using Party Time data, so we can credit you.

Much thanks to Luke Rosiak for building new Party Time tools.

If you visit the motherlode of all campaign finance data websites, the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org, you can now find Party Time data about congressional fundraisers. Check out this link, for example, to Rep. Steny Hoyer's (D-Md.) profile page here, which now shows his upcoming fundraising events. We're really pleased to see the information from Party Time get around the web, where more people will see it. Note: the Sunlight Foundation helps fund the Center for Responsive Politics.)

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) will be cheering on the Saints at the Super Bowl in Miami--and trolling for campaign cash while he's at it. This invitation suggests that recipients contact his fundraising firm, the Levatino Group, if "interested in attending," but tastefully doesn't say what level of contribution is required.

Propublica, the investigative news site, is asking readers to help with a project to find out which lawmakers are going to the Super Bowl--and who is paying for their tickets:

"Why would we cast our skeptical eyeglass on Congress and the Super Bowl?  Because the event “has long been used to rub shoulders, gain influence and form ties that help congressional candidates raise the approximately $1 billion they spend on their campaigns every two years," wrote Mike Webb, director of communications, in an email to supporters.

Are leadership PACs paying for these tickets? Are they being provided free from the National Football League? Are the national political parties giving them out to reward big donors? Propublica is seeking to find out by asking for volunteers to call each lawmaker's office and ask some simple questions. You can find all the details here.

We'll be keeping an eye on what Propublica finds out, as well as continuing to report on any invitation for fundraisers we receive that feature the Super Bowl.

This just in...a Super Bowl fundraising luncheon in Miami benefiting Rep. John Conyers' (D-Mich.) leadership PAC, America Forward PAC. $5,000 will get you a ticket to the game plus two admissions to the luncheon, at Joe's Stone Crab. Presumably this is if you're making an contribution as an individual; $5,000 from a "PAC host," $2,500 from a "PAC Supporter," or a $1,000 contribution from an individual just gets you a seat at the luncheon.

We're keeping our eyes out for more Super Bowl fundraising invitations and will flag them as we get them.

Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit group, released a report today that used Party Time data to show that the financial sector sponsored at least 43 fundraisers for members of the Senate Banking Committee in 2009. You can read the full report here.