Top 20 Venues of 2008 Sunlight Foundation's Party Time!

Today is February 9th

Documenting the Political Partying Circuit

From the early hours of the morning until late in the evening, politicians are partying. Sunlight's PARTY TIME can help you find out who is partying, where and when.

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Top 20 Most Popular Congressional Partying Spots of 2008

248 invitations	The Capitol Hill Club 300 First Street, SE Washington, DC 20003
120 invitations	Johnny's Half Shell 400 North Capitol Street N.W., Washington, DC 20003
100 invitations	National Democratic Club Townhouse 40 Ivy Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003
83 invitations	Charlie Palmer Steak 101 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20003
79 invitations	Bistro Bis 15 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20003
72 invitations	Tortilla Coast 400 First Street, SE Washington, DC 20003
69 invitations	Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar 223 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20003
53 invitations	The Monocle Restaurant 107 D Street, NE Washington, DC 20003
40 invitations	Democratic National Committee 430 South Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC 20003
34 invitations	Rupli Townhouse 446 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20003
32 invitations	UPS townhouse 421 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20003
31 invitations	The Williams & Jensen Townhouse 324 Independence Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20003
30 invitations	The Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America Townhouse 53 D Street, SE Washington, DC 20003
30 invitations	The Twenty First Century Group, Inc. 434 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20003
22 invitations	The Home of Julie Domenick 315 C Street, SE Washington, DC 20003
20 invitations	Hunan Dynasty 215 Pennsylvania Ave, SE Washington, DC 20003
19 invitations	National Republican Senatorial Committee 425 2nd Street, NE Washington, DC 20003
18 invitations	Erickson & Company, Inc. 38 Ivy Street, SE Washington, DC 20003
16 invitations	Patton Boggs House 417 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20003
16 invitations	Hotel George 5 E Street, SE Washington, DC 20003

Methodology

The Sunlight Foundation's Party Time project collects invitations to congressional fundraisers from anonymous lobbyist sources. (We welcome new submissions from anyone who would like to contribute). We convert the invitations we receive and embed them on our site using Scribd. We also enter key data from these invitations into a database, such as the beneficiary of a fundraising party, any other members of Congress or people mentioned on the invitation, the venue name, the type of entertainment (i.e. golf, reception) address and the date.

For this analysis, we standardized venue names and eliminated duplicate invitations for the same party. However, it is possible that a few of these may still exist in the database. The database is organic, growing day by day as we receive new invitations from our sources, so any analysis is a snapshot in time. This analysis is based on data downloaded from our Web site on December 16, 2008.

PARTYFINDER™ Hints

Beneficiary: congressional candidate, lawmaker, or entity which collects funds raised at party

Host: person who is hosting party-often, but not always, a registered federal lobbyist

Venue Name: where the party is

Entertainment Type: type of gathering, such as "breakfast," "ski trip," "bowling"

Other Lawmakers Mentioned: lawmakers mentioned on invitation who are used as a draw for the event

Note: You may wonder why you often see repeat entries for the same party. Sometimes we receive the same invitation from more than one source. We are working on eliminating these duplicates.

UPCOMING FUNDRAISING EVENTS

Feb. 9

Labor Breakfast
For: Rep. John Salazar (D, CO-3)

Feb. 9

Breakfast @ Tortilla Coast
For: Rep. Bob Filner (D, CA-51)

Feb. 9

Lunch @ Capitol Hill Club
For: Rep. John Shimkus (R, IL-19)

Feb. 9

Lunch @ Meyers & Associates
For: Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D, TX-16)

Feb. 9

@ National Democratic Club Townhouse
For: Rep Marcia Fudge (D, OH)

RECENT FUNDRAISING EVENTS

Feb. 8

Reception @ Home of Susan and Bruce Turnbull
For: Sen. Ben Cardin (D, MD)

Feb. 8

Luncheon @ Luciano's Trattoria Restaurant
For: Rep. William Clay (D, MO-1)

Feb. 7

Super Bowl XLIV Game @ Sun Life Stadium
For: Rep. Steve Scalise (R, LA-1)

Feb. 6

Georgetown vs. Villanova Basketball Game @ Verizon Center
For: Patrick L. Meehan (R, PA-07)

Feb. 6

Super Bowl XLIV Game & Luncheon @ Joe's Stone Crab
For: Rep. John Conyers (D, MI-14)