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Why the hell are candidates allowed to have dinners and charge $25,000 for a seat at the table? Does that not violate the contribution limit or is it because it's a "Private Dinner" ?

I mean shit.. Paul Ryan was out here in Portland and he was charging the following:

$1,000 for general admission
$2,500 for a VIP photo
$10,000 for access to a technology innovator round table
$25,000 Private Dinner

Here are the contribution limits from the FEC..

Contribution Limits

An individual may give a maximum of:

$2,500 per election to a Federal candidate or the candidate's campaign committee.2 Notice that the limit applies separately to each election. Primaries, runoffs and general elections are considered separate elections.
$5,000 per calendar year to a PAC. This limit applies to a PAC (political action committee) that supports Federal candidates. (PACs are neither party committees nor candidate committees. Some PACs are sponsored by corporations and unions--trade, industry and labor PACs. Other PACs, often ideological, do not have a corporate or labor sponsor and are therefore called nonconnected PACs.) PACs use your contributions to make their own contributions to Federal candidates and to fund other election-related activities.
$10,000 per calendar year to a State or local party committee. A State party committee shares its limits with local party committees in that state unless a local committee's independence can be demonstrated.
$30,800 per calendar year to a national party committee. This limit applies separately to a party's national committee, House campaign committee and Senate campaign committee.
$117,000 total biennial limit. This biennial limit places a ceiling on your total contributions, as explained below.
$100 in currency (cash) to any political committee. (Anonymous cash contributions may not exceed $50.) Contributions exceeding $100 must be made by check, money order or other written instrument.

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