Carl DeMaio, David V. Hedley III, David Letterman, hang at Martha’s

An invitation posted on PoliticalPartytime.org says freshman Democratic congressman Scott Peters threw a fundraiser July 15 at the offices of one of Washington’s top lobbying shops. Admission was listed at $250 per individual — $2000 per political action committee — to a big-money bash held at Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc. “H. Stewart ‘Stu’ Van Scoyoc, the company’s founder and continuing President, first came to Washington on a temporary assignment in the 1970s as an attorney for the DuPont Company,” says the company website. “As so many others, he found a home in the Nation’s Capital and decided to make government affairs his life’s work.”

Records show that in addition to the $1000 Van Scoyoc personally gave Peters, other Van Scoyoc Associates contributions have included $16,451 for House Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. Current clients include Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., the California Department of Water Resources, and Adaptive Cyber Solutions, federal filings say.

Somewhat ironically in light of Van Scoyoc’s support for Peters, the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted Florida Republican congressional candidate David Jolly for being a former Van Scoyoc executive. “Is Jolly proud of lobbying for special interests that received over $3,000,000 in taxpayer-funded earmarks?” said the January TV spot, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times. “Or the firm lobbying for hundreds of millions for a dictator in Pakistan as we face record debt?” Concluded the newspaper: “This ad treads close to the line, implying Jolly’s firm did something unethical when, so far as we know, it acted lawfully and as other lobbying firms regularly do. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.”

Meanwhile the GOP’s Carl DeMaio, who is challenging Peters, scheduled a fundraiser in Martha’s Vineyard this summer to do a little campaign rainmaking of his own among the vacationing super rich and famous. According to the invite, DeMaio’s August 16 party was held at the “Hedley & Hancsin Residence.” The DeMaio campaign did not respond to a request for details. David V. Hedley III, a wealthy San Francisco investment banker for Canaccord Financial, Inc., Canada’s largest non-bank brokerage, owns a big house just down the road from David Letterman on the Vineyard, says the website VirtualGlobeTrotting.com. Hedley is on the executive board of GLAAD, originally known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.