Michele Bachmann RSVPs Regrets to Constituents and Parties on in DC

By Karl Bremer

When Michele Bachmann admitted recently that in her more than three years in Congress, “I don’t have substantive bills that I have been able to pass,” the second-term congresswoman blamed it on her being a “fairly new freshman” in a “deep minority.”

A look at Bachmann’s social calendar, however, suggests that if she spent more time on legislating and less time on the D.C. cocktail-party circuit, she might actually get something accomplished.

The Sunlight Foundation’s Party Time project documents the political partying scene in Washington through invitations to political fundraisers it receives from a network of connected sources. In addition to a searchable database of party beneficiaries, hosts, venues and types of entertainment, copies of actual party invitations can be downloaded from the site.

While Party Time doesn’t document every party thrown—just the ones it receives invitations for—it serves as a good barometer as to who’s throwing down. And among the Minnesota congressional delegation, Bachmann is the clear party animal.

The Party Time website features invitations to 27 Bachmann parties since she was elected, all but two of them in 2008-09. No one in the Minnesota delegation even comes close to that kind of carousing. Colin Peterson and James Oberstar—both powerful committee chairs—show only 11 invitations, as does Keith Ellison. Betty McCollum and Tim Walz only have seven invitations apiece by their name. John Kline is even less sociable at five. And Erik Paulsen, who perhaps hasn’t had time to learn the ways of Washington yet, has only three.

Al Franken shows only three—one at his own home. And a modest four invitations show up for Amy Klobuchar.

Bachmann’s favorite venue for putting the squeeze on lobbyists and PACs is just one block from the U.S. Capitol at the exclusive Capitol Hill Club, “a refined and elegant environment for your business, political, and social activities.” She held at least seven fundraisers there in 2009 alone, fetching $1,000 per PAC and $250-$500 per individual, and at least another three in 2008.

Described as a “national social club for Republicans,” the Capitol Hill Club’s membership is by invitation only and requires the sponsorship of at least two members. The candidate’s name and the names of the sponsors may be posted in the lobby for 10 days and then the candidate’s application is presented to the Membership Committee and the Executive Committee for final approval.

According to a 2008 Harper’s article, successful applicants pay a $1,000 initiation fee ($300 for members of Congress) and $125 a month in dues ($62.50 for members of Congress).

Says the Club’s website: “In a recent speech to Club members, a respected Republican leader said “There’s no place in this town where the ratio of impression to value comes at a lower cost.” As a member of the Capitol Hill Club, you will enjoy the opportunity to associate with the men and women who shape the future of our country. Whether here for business or pleasure, at the Capitol Hill Club you are part of the excitement of Washington.”

When Bachmann isn’t being “part of the excitement of Washington” at the Capitol Hill Club, she has to settle for partying with the hoi polloi at the more public digs of Finemondo or the Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar, where she held at least five fundraisers in 2009 and at least four more in 2008.

Sometimes Bachmann’s supporters offer up their own quarters for her parties. Like the June 17 luncheon with Pete Sessions at the National Rifle Association’s offices.

Other times Bachmann takes advantage of a more recent phenomenon: the free or discounted use of a lobbyist’s private townhouse.

According to a 2008 USA Today article:

“In the past decade, 18 lobbying firms, corporations and labor unions have purchased town houses or leased office space near the Capitol, joining more than a dozen others that had operated there for years, according to real estate records.

“Despite a strict new ban on gifts to lawmakers, lobbyists routinely use these prime locations to legally wine and dine members of Congress while helping them to raise money, campaign records show. The lawmakers get a venue that is often free or low-cost, a short jaunt from the Capitol. The lobbyists get precious uninterrupted moments with lawmakers — the sort of money-fueled proximity the new lobbying law was designed to curtail. The public seldom learns what happens there because the law doesn't always require fundraising details to be reported.

"It's a nice added bonus to say, 'Hey, we're going to host it at our house,'" said Jeffrey Shoaf, chief lobbyist of the Associated General Contractors of America, which opened its doors for nine fundraisers — and others that he says went undisclosed — last year at its redbrick townhouse two blocks from the Capitol.”

Bachmann was the beneficiary of the Associated General Contractors townhouse herself at a June 3 reception for her featuring John Boehner. And in 2008, she took advantage of the lobbyist-owned townhouses of Rupli and Associates and Bartlett, Bendall & Kadesh to raise campaign cash.

Sometimes Bachmann isn’t the beneficiary of these soirees but rather, a featured guest designed to draw the big checks. She’s added marquee value to at least four such events in the past two years, according to Party Time.

One month when you won’t find Bachmann going to lobbyists’ fundraisers is August, when Congress is in recess. Not because she wants to spend that month in her district meeting with constituents, but because that’s when she takes her annual excursion to Israel, courtesy of Jewish organizations affiliated with lobbyists for Israel.

Bachmann—and her family members—have enjoyed free trips to Israel every year she’s been in office, to the tune of $44,380.

Most recently, in July-August 2009, Bachmann and her daughter, Elisa, traveled to Jerusalem on the dime of the American Israel Education Foundation, living like royalty at the $500-a-night, five-star David Citadel Hotel. Cost of the trip for Michele and Elisa Bachmann: $19,414.74, covered entirely by the Jewish group, which is affiliated with the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). They each even got a nice photo album from their hosts as a momento of their junket.

In 2008, Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, traveled to Jerusalem, this time courtesy of the Jewish Community Relations Council. Cost of trip: $7,170.

In 2007, Michele and Marcus jaunted off to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with the American Israel Education Foundation picking up the tab again, including luxurious $436/night rooms at the David Citadel Hotel. Cost: $17,796.

Meanwhile, as Bachmann tops the Minnesota delegation in parties and free trips to Israel, she also tops the delegation in missed votes. So far in the 111th Congress, Bachmann has missed 11 percent of her votes, placing her 25th worst among 435 members. The average for all members is 3.8 percent.

None of this comes as a surprise to those who have tracked Bachmann’s political career since the beginning. She had a reputation as a lazy legislator while serving in the Minnesota State Senate, more interested in promoting herself and her narrow extremist agenda than anything beneficial to her constituents. Like her congressional career, where Bachmann has only one committee assignment, she carried a lighter committee load in the legislature than just about all of her Senate colleagues and passed nothing of significance during her tenure there either.

When Bachmann arrived in Washington in 2007, one of her first pronouncements was to lambaste House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for extending the Congressional work week from three days to five.

“So now we have very limited opportunities to meet with people back in Minnesota,” Bachmann groused. “Unless you’re rich enough to take time off of work and have money to buy an airplane ticket to come to DC, your opportunities for meeting with your local congressman are greatly diminished.”

Yet in the three years since being elected, Bachmann has found time to make a national name for herself through countless appearances on conservative tv and radio shows and coast-to-coast speaking engagements, while holding only had a single public town hall meeting in her own district.

Moral of the story? If you live in Minnesota’s 6th District and want to meet with your congresswoman Michele Bachmann, don’t wait around for her next town hall meeting. You’ll have a far better chance catching her if you head on over to the Capitol Hill Club instead with a $500 check in hand.