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Hunting in Hamptons

Clintons seek treasures in East End in annual fund blitz, but are Dems tapped out?

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Washington Bureau

August 8, 2006

The annual Bill and Hillary Clinton cash caravan rolls onto the East End next weekend with a quartet of big-cash fundraisers - even as some Clinton campers worry donors are feeling tapped out.

The Clintons' weekend out east marks the height of Hamptons checkbook season, but hardly its conclusion. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton returns on the night of Aug. 25 to raise cash for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and might mine more seaside cash at as-yet unscheduled events that weekend, Democrats said.

The senator's campaign is reluctant to say how much the upcoming fetes will raise, but similar weekenders have reportedly brought in between $250,000 and $500,000 or more.

It's also not clear where the former first couple will rest their heads during their Long Island stay: In years past they have bunked at Steven Spielberg's mansion near Georgica Pond.

Clinton has already banked $22 million despite the absence of a viable Republican challenger, stoking speculation she's stowing the money away for a presidential bid. She kicks off this weekend's trip with a Friday night event at the East Hampton home of Ira Statfeld and Michael Recanati, a local Democratic power couple befriended by the Clintons.

The senator is expected to arrive hours before her husband, who will probably fly in for the next day's events.

On Saturday morning, the Clintons will be feted at a $2,000-a-plate brunch at the Sag Harbor house of philanthropist Lisa Perry, who was a Lincoln bedroom guest in the late 1990s.

After a stopover at another event at an undisclosed location, the Clintons cap off the weekend with a serenade from '80s pop-metal poster boy Jon Bon Jovi, performing at the East Hampton residence of cash register king Bill Nuti, president of retail technology company NCR.

For $1,000, devotees can join their favorite couple for an "evening under the stars" with cocktails and dessert on Nuti's lawn, according to the invitation.

This year's Hamptons political schedule is unusually hectic for a nonpresidential election year. Last weekend, Attorney General and gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer held a trio of fundraisers in the Hamptons. On Aug. 19, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean hosts a $10,000-per-guest fundraiser at the Southampton estate of financier George Soros.

The Clintons have made a summer stop on the East End a nearly annual event on their itinerary since the late 1990s, and Bill Clinton's foray to the area in 1999 marked the first time a sitting president had visited the Hamptons in a century.

HILLPAC, the senator's party-building operation, hosted a pair of events in the Hamptons last August. Both Clintons attended a 2004 event for John Kerry at the home of venture capitalist Alan Patricof, one of the senator's major patrons.

No one seriously doubts this weekend's fetes will scare up a crowd. But some Democrats said big-money New York donors are getting tired of being squeezed by Clinton when other candidates have more competitive races.

"There's real donor fatigue out there," said a Clinton supporter who has helped organize past fundraisers. "She's already hit most of these people up, and with [gubernatorial candidate] Eliot [Spitzer] hitting people up for cash they may just decide to sit this one out."

Clinton donor John Catsimatidis, the Manhattan supermarket magnate, said that's nonsense.

"Sure, there's some fatigue out there, but not when it comes to Hillary Clinton," said Catsimatidis, who is planning his own Clinton fundraiser this fall. "People want to be on the bandwagon. With her the fatigue factor is zero."

Their history in the Hamptons

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is reluctant to say how much the upcoming fetes will raise, but similar weekenders have brought in $250,000 to $500,000 or more, according to Democrats who have helped the Clintons. Here are some of the past contributors and event hosts:

Friends of Hillary, Hamptons chapter

Steven Spielberg, film director

Alan Patricof, venture fund manager, and wife Susan, philanthropist

Christie Brinkley, model (and likely-to-be ex-husband Peter Cook)

Jane Rosenthal, founder of the Tribeca Film Festival

Vera Wang, fashion designer

Ellen Chesler, abortion rights activist and writer, and husband Matt Mallow, attorney

This year:

William Nuti, bar code company executive and wife, Michele, philanthropist

Michael Recanati, shipping heir- investor, and partner Ira Statfeld