For many of us, mention of the month September might conjure up memories of back-to-school shopping trips, leaves beginning to turn red and golden, or football season gearing up. Thanks to our Party Time database, we now have a new association--in this election year, September is the most partied month of all--see the graph above.

It makes sense. In the universe of congressional fundraising, the third quarter of the year closes at the end of September, with reports due at the U.S. Federal Election Commission on October 15. It's the last big chance before the election for candidates to strut their money making stuff, showing their opponents how formidable they are by how much cash they've collected. Also, Congress adjourned in early October and most lawmakers headed back to their districts to campaign, leaving behind the Washington watering holes where they do most of their fundraising from lobbyists.

Another big spike was toward the end of July, during the Democratic and Republican national conventions. These weren't for fundraising parties but rather for the festivities that accompany those stately events.

And June is another big partying month, likely largely because that's when the second quarter for financial reporting closes, on June 30.

Of course as always we must add the caveat this graph may be skewed by the fact we only know about the parties our sources tell us about. There's no official requirement that these parties be reported, so we rely on what we can get. But the patterns certainly make sense.

Stay tuned in the next several weeks for more big picture analyses from Party Time. Behind the scenes, our Party Time workers have been busy cleaning up the data from the year 2008, working to eliminate duplicates and standardize certain elements. The graph above is part of a work in progress.

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If an email could shout, the one I received this morning from a vacation lodging company would do it. "The snow is falling! Aspen/Snowmass has already received 2 feet of snow and more is on the way." Yes, this is the time of year when we Denverites start to fantasize about how much snow is falling where and how we can manage to dodge traffic on I-70 to get to the mountains and start skiing on it.

And according to our Party Time database, at least five lawmakers have dreams of white fluffy stuff too--although to attend you or your PAC would have to chip in anywhere from $2,300 to $5,000 attend.

Here in Colorado, my own representative Colorado Democrat Rep. Diana Degette is planning a Vail ski weekend from Jan. 2 through Jan. 5.  The following week, Jan. 8 -11, Rep. Carolyn B Maloney (D-NY) is also planning a Vail get away. The same weekend, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) is planning to ski in nearby Beaver Creek in an event to benefit his leadership PAC, First State PAC.

Not that everybody skis in Colorado. Over in Idaho there are some big hills too. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) is planning his annual ski fest in Sun Valley for February 6 - 8. And then there's of course Alaska. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) plans to celebrate the 37th Iditarod with some skiing at the Aleyeska ski resort.

Perhaps there are other skiing fundraising events planned that we don't know about. If you have heard about them, please send the information our way.

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Thanks to the Society of Environmental Journalists, which ran a piece urging its members to make use of the wealth of information at Party Time:

Legend has it that some Hill staffers have been able to subsist for months merely by attending receptions and schmoozing hors d'oeuvres. It may be occasionally possible for a journalist to stake out such functions and even infiltrate them - but the WatchDog urges caution at those costing $5,000/table. Journalists trying to crash posh shindigs at the Dem and GOP conventions this summer got the cold shoulder from security.

If you ever DO get an invitation: by all means, post it to the database.

Yes, please do. And while we're talking about it, here are some parties that you environmental journalists might be interested in:

• parties hosted by groups with "mining" in their name. Click here.
• ditto for "petroleum." Click here.
• and those with "energy," click here.
• and we can't forget "electric." Click here.

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With the election night parties over, at Party Time our bleary minds are wandering toward--future parties. The holiday party season is right around the corner, and right after that come the inaugural parties.

So we were so happy when our own creative director pointed out this essential piece of party-going equipment. It's perfect for all those congressional soirees that must meet ethics law requirements that only finger food be served, also known as the "toothpick rule." Check it out.

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Welcome to Election Day. Tonight congressional candidates will gather with their supporters in hotel ballrooms and community halls across the country to watch the returns come in. Winning means being able to party on in the future. For those that lose, they'll still party. Many will likely go through the revolving door to become lobbyists where their jobs will include setting up fundraising parties for others.

Here at Party Time over the last few weeks, we've written on the fundraising parties thrown for candidates in some of the hottest races--who presumably have some the hottest parties. You can read about Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) here; Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) here; the Minnesota Senate race here; Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO here; and the Colorado Senate race here.

And below is a list with links to the parties thrown for candidates in the most competitive House and Senate races, as identified by the National Journal. (As always, we must caution that our Party Time database contains the invitations we receive from anonymous lobbyist sources. It is highly unlikely that we receive all the invitations to all the parties that have been thrown. We're always happy to receive more invitations.)

Senate

1. VA: Jim Gilmore (R) v. Mark Warner (D)

2. NM: Steve Pearce (R) v. Tom Udall (D)

3. CO: Bob Schaffer (D) v. Mark Udall (D)

4. NH: John Sununu (R) v. Jeanne Shaheen (D)

5. AK: Ted Stevens (R) v. Mark Begich (R)

6. NC: Elizabeth Dole (R) v. Kay Hagan (D)

7. OR: Gordon Smith (R) v. Jeff Merkley (D)

8. MN: Norm Coleman (R) v. Al Franken (DFL)

9. GA: Saxby Chambliss (R) v. Jim Martin (D)

10. LA: Mary Landrieu (D) v. John Kennedy (R)

House

1. NY-13: Bob Straniere (R) v. Michael McMahon (D)

2. NY-25: Dale Sweetland (R) v. Dan Maffei (D)

3. AZ-01: Sydney Hay (R) v. Ann Kirkpatrick (D)

4. VA-11: Keith Fimian (R) v. Gerry Connolly (D)

5. FL-16: Tim Mahoney (D) v. Tom Rooney (R)

6. IL-11: Martin Ozinga (R) v. Debbie Halvorson (D)

7. OH-16: Kirk Schuring (R) v. John Boccieri (D)

8. TX-22: Nick Lampson (D) v. Pete Olson (R)

9. AK-AL: Don Young (R) v. Ethan Berkowitz (D)

10. FL-24: Tom Feeney (R) v. Suzanne Kosmas (D)

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Speaking of post-election celebrations, Rep. Mellisa Bean (D-IL) is planning one for after the election benefitting her leadership PAC, BEAN PAC, aka "Building Empowerment and Accountability Now." She uses the PAC to help out other Democrats do what she's done successfully for herself--win close races.

The occasion? A breakfast welcoming the "new class of the 111th Congress" as part of a "Frontline/Red2Blue" celebration. The location? The street address is 421 New Jersey Avenue, NW, which just happens to be the location of the UPS townhouse. This is a popular place for congressional fundraisers, as USA Today reported earlier this year.

Bean, who was elected in 2004, has been a top target of Republicans. She has also been, however, a tremendously successful fundraiser, collecting more than $3 million for her 2008 election bid. (To see more of her parties, click here.) Her reputation as a pro-business centrist and her seat on the powerful House Financial Services committee helps: she was the second top recipient this election cycle from finance and credit companies, and collected $827,000 from the finance, insurance, and real estate sector overall. Bean is favored to win her race next week.

Tim Leahy, who is the contact person for the event, says the event is no longer planned for Nov. 17 but will likely be later that week.

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Here at Party Time, we're honored to be nominated for a BOB award for the "best English weblog." Click here to cast a vote for Party Time.

Who and what is BOB, you ask? BOB is a contest run by Deutsche Welle, Germany's international public broadcaster. More than 8,500 blogs, videoblogs and podcasts were nominated in 16 categories for the BOBs this year. The judges narrowed them down to 176 finalists in 11 categories. Now it's time to pick the winners.

Deutsche Welle's worthy mission is to "encourage a global online dialogue - regardless of language. Another goal of the BOBs is to support the spread of the freedom of expression, information and the press worldwide, especially in countries where such freedoms are limited." You can read more about the contest here.

Voting ends November 26. Please cast your vote now--and tell your friends, family, and anybody you happen to party with to vote for the Sunlight Foundation's Party Time!

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Just days after next week's election, House Minority Whip Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MS) is offering his donors a weekend escape.

Blunt is planning a weekend getaway for donors to his leadership PAC, Rely on your Beliefs (ROYB), at the luxurious The Sanctuary Hotel in Charleston, SC. Depending on what next Tuesday's results are, invited donors--those who have maxed out to the PAC this year by contributing $5,000--may well find themselves in special need of the "luxury spa indulgence or championship golf outing" offered by the beach side hotel.

Some of the organizations that have given $5,000 this year to ROYB include Abbott Laboratories PAC, Express Scripts Inc. PAC, and the International Association of Firefighters PAC, according to records filed with the U.S. Federal Election Commission.

The ROYB PAC was in the news a few years back at the height of the scandals surrounding then Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), as reported by The New York Times:

Mr. DeLay's committee gave at least $150,000 to Mr. Blunt's Rely on Your Beliefs Non-Federal Committee in 2000, which in turn wrote checks to several other DeLay organizations, the documents showed.

They showed that Mr. Blunt's group gave $100,000 to the Missouri Republican Party, which later spent tens of thousands of dollars supporting Mr. Blunt's son, Matt, in his campaign for secretary of state. Matt Blunt is now the state's governor.

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The guilty verdict in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) had barely been delivered this afternoon when a few GOP senatorial heavyweights started using words like "disgrace," and "consequences." It was a far cry from four months ago, just before he was indicted, when a long list of GOP senators were listed on an invitation for a luncheon in his honor.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was on that list. Today, instead of toasting Stevens, he had this to say:

“This is a sad but serious day. Sen. Stevens was found guilty by a jury of his peers, and now must face the consequences of those actions. As a result of his conviction, Sen. Stevens will be held accountable so the public trust can be restored.”

So was Sen. John Ensign (R-NV). Today Ensign said:

"This is a sad day for the United States Senate. Ted Stevens served his constituents for over 40 years and I am disappointed to see his career end in disgrace."

Only fellow Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who also was listed on the June invitation, stood by her man:

"Ted has asked for Alaskans and his Senate colleagues to stand with him as he pursues his legal rights. He stood with Alaskans for 40 years, and I plan to continue to stand with him."

Does that mean she would still party for him?

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The other day I posted about how Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) likes to help out fellow lawmakers by lending his name to their fundraising invitations. That got me thinking--who in Congress parties the most for their posses? So I queried our Party Time database.

Drum roll please...the answer is:

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), with a whopping 60 parties on file since 2006; and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), with 48. (Note: these records have not yet been scrubbed for duplicates, so there are some repeat parties here.) The two are, respectively, the House majority and minority leaders.

What does this show? That partying for the party is a big--if not the biggest--part of the job description when you are in the congressional leadership.

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