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There's more money in American politics than ever before. On average, winners of House of Representatives seats raised $1.6 million each in 2012, while victorious senators raised an average of $10.4 million that year. The consequence is that even when they're in DC — especially then, really — members of Congress are spending a ton of time on fundraising.
The Sunlight Foundation's Political Party Time project collected over 17,000 invitations to political fundraisers spanning 5 years, and Ben Chartoff and Amy Cesal created an interactive map of where they were held. Larger circles indicate that more fundraisers were held in a certain place. Here's the part of the map focusing on downtown DC and Capitol Hill:
It's easy to find the US Capitol on that map —just look right in the middle of the biggest circles, where the most fundraisers were held. Remarkably, Chartoff writes, 44 percent of political fundraisers in the city were held within just a three-block radius of the Capitol, at just 10 locations. The Capitol Hill Club, described here by Ken Silverstein, was by far the leader, with 1,966 fundraisers for Republicans. Restaurants Johnny's Half Shell, and Charlie Palmer Steak were second and third. Head over to the Sunlight Foundation's website for the full list and interactive map.
Read more: 40 charts that explain money in politics
