gagworthy: A Vineyard Weekend for Donors

[cali]

By Kate Ackley
Roll Call Staff
July 20, 2009, 12 a.m.

Call it summer camp for K Street. A throng of Washington, D.C.’s top Democratic lobbyists are spending the weekend on the chic-bucolic Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard.

They are there for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s annual donor-palooza, a thank you of sorts to lobbyists and other top donors around the country who have given $30,000 to the committee’s coffers. In return, the top donors get to mix and mingle with the 30 or more Senators and Senatorial candidates who were expected at the event.

Among the lobbyists who are helping the Democrats take over the island are Julie Domenick, president of Multiple Strategies; the OB-C Group’s Larry O’Brien; and Jeffrey Peck of Peck, Madigan, Jones & Stewart. Democratic lobbyist power couple Heather and Tony Podesta are also there (she runs Heather Podesta + Partners, while he is the founder of the Podesta Group).

Elmendorf Strategies’ Steve Elmendorf and the firm’s newest addition, Jimmy Ryan, are both in attendance. Top Democratic donor Jack Quinn of Quinn Gillespie & Associates also made the trip.

“It’s a record turnout,” one K Streeter said by cell phone from the island on Friday afternoon, just as people were beginning to check in for the weekend. “It’s probably two to three times the size of the crowd of a couple years ago in terms of donors. Winning definitely breeds popularity.”

The lobbyist added that a large number of business interests were represented at the retreat.

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According to lobbying sources, Democratic Senators at the event included Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Tom Carper (Del.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Bob Menendez (N.J.), John Kerry (Mass.) and Bob Casey (Pa.).

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http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_9/vested/36954-1.html

[timeforpeace]

1. I bet they'll have a good time.