Vice President Dick Cheney helped raise some $700,000 in the first of a series of campaign fund-raising events this week to help Republicans re-capture Congress — but don’t count on hearing much about them since they are all closed to the press.

While Cheney has a well-known penchant for secrecy, the blame belongs to the hosts of the events who asked that the events be closed to public scrutiny, according to his spokeswoman Megan Mitchell. When President George W. Bush attends fundraisers, only ones held at private homes are closed.

“His role will be similar to what it has been in past campaigns. He wants to help the Republicans take back the House and gain a majority in the Senate,” said Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell.

However, analysts see Republicans facing an uphill battle to win back Congress after a number of senators and congressmen in battleground states like Virginia, Ohio and Nebraska have decided against running for re-election in 2008.

The first event, at a private home in Los Angeles on Wednesday, drew the $700,000 from 70 attendees all to benefit the Republican National Committee.   

Cheney bounced over to Sin City Las Vegas and Denver on Thursday for closed-door receptions for the Nevada and Colorado state Republican parties before winding up his trip in Wyoming on Friday where he will stop by a reception at a restaurant for the newest Republican member of the Senate, John Barrasso.

Barrasso succeeded Sen. Craig Thomas who died earlier this year from leukemia.

Before that event, Cheney will give a closed-door speech in Utah to the Council for National Policy, a conservative group that keeps pretty mum on its beliefs beyond supporting “a free enterprise system, a strong national defense, and support for traditional western values.”

– Additional reporting by Caren Bohan.

– Photo credit: Jonathan Ernst