DC crowd's path to Silicon Valley

A trek to Silicon Valley has become a must-do for DC lawmakers seeking to stress their business and tech bona fides while developing relationships that could lead to big campaign donations down the road.

Just last week, six Democratic senators -- Mark Begich of Alaska, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Tom Carper of Delaware, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Mark Warner of Virginia -- joined the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for a fundraiser and an event on innovation featuring Google and Facebook. A frequent visitor to the valley is Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the GOP's High-Tech Working Group and co-chairman of the Congressional Internet Caucus. Goodlatte, whose son works at Facebook, met in April with Google, Facebook, Intel, McKesson Corp. and Adura, according to a spokeswoman. Two of those companies, Google and Intel, are recent donors to Goodlatte. Also in 2010, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, led by ranking member Dave Camp of Michigan, headed to the valley as part of a tour organized by The Ripon Society. That delegation — which included fellow GOP committee members Kevin Brady of Texas, Wally Herger of California and Devin Nunes of California — met with staffers from Google, Cisco, Microsoft and other firms to talk taxes and trade.