No room for us at ‘widely attended’ Qwest party

A new dispatch from Political Party Time.org

We’re just back from a party thrown by Qwest CEO Ed Mueller at the Denver Art Museum’s Palletes restaurant. Designed to be a “widely attended event” under the new ethics law, according to the invitation, apparently it wasn’t so widely attended that they were prepared to allow me in. (To meet the “widely attended” loophole, the event must have at least 25 attendees who are not members of Congress, and there must be some official business for the lawmaker attending, among other conditions.)

Johanna Hoff, a spokesperson for Qwest, politely explained to us that the event was “private,” that she really didn’t have any details about what they were serving or who was on the guest list. I mentioned that since the invitation specifically said the event was designed to be “widely attended,” it seemed like some members of Congress would be attending, but again, she pleaded ignorance.

She confirmed that yes, Qwest is supporting both the Democratic and the Republican conventions, because the company considers both Democrats and Republicans alike to be its “customers.”

We got some great footage on video , which will be available via our twitter account-www.twitter.com/SFPartytime as soon as Qik.com comes back up.

Nancy Watzman is with the Sunlight Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) educational organization that supports, develops and deploys new Internet technologies to make information about Congress and the federal government more accessible to the American people. She is a former fellow with the Center for Independent Media.

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