Hillary Clinton To Join Family in Amagansett
Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to arrive at East Hampton Airport tomorrow in plenty of time for a Saturday fund-raiser, the first of four events in the Hamptons, and to join former President Bill Clinton, who arrived on Sunday for a two-week vacation at the same house they rented in Amagansett last August.
Her peripatetic schedule is to begin at the Cobb Road, Water Mill, estate of Artie and Selma Rabin. Mr. Rabin, an apparel company magnate, is the co-owner of the Brooklyn Nets. Mrs. Clinton is then expected take a week’s hiatus from fund-raising here while she heads to Cleveland and to a Democratic National Committee meeting in Minnesota. She will return to the East End for a pancake breakfast on Aug. 30 at the Huntting Lane, East Hampton, home of Alan and Susan Patricof, longtime summer residents here and Democratic Party supporters.
The day is a packed one for Mrs. Clinton. After the breakfast at the Patricofs, she is to zip to Southampton for a lunch at the fashion designer Tory Burch’s house and travel back to East Hampton that night for a Full Moon on the Farm With Hillary Rodham Clinton barbecue at Hilary Leff and Elliot Groffman’s place in Northwest Woods. Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton will provide the hors d’oeuvres. Its chef is Jason Weiner, whose brother is the former New York representative Anthony Weiner. Tickets to the barbecue start at only $500, according to published reports, although the minimum contribution for the other events is $1,000.
Mr. Clinton is known to take to the greens, having played at Montauk Downs Golf Course on Tuesday at around 2:45 p.m. About an hour earlier, a crowd of some 100 were seen awaiting his appearance. About a month ago, Secret Service men were also seen poking around the Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton.
The Clintons have been frequent vacationers here, with Mr. Clinton having made a fund-raising splash during his campaign for re-election. Although in previous summers they rented houses on the East Hampton oceanfront, last summer they chose the seven-bedroom house on the former Bell Estate overlooking Albert’s Landing Beach and Gardiner’s Bay owned by Andre and Lois Nasser instead. The tab is reported to be $100,000. Chelsea Clinton, her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, and Mrs. Clinton’s granddaughter, Charlotte, are also expected to spend time here.
The news of Mrs. Clinton’s Hamptons fund-raising came at about the same time that The New York Times revealed her need to do better at wooing high-paying donors. Republican candidates, The Times reported, had received a total of $124.2 million from contributors flooding money into super PACs, a figure 12 times larger than had come from Democratic donors. According to the Federal Election Commission, Mrs. Clinton has raised over $47 million in traditional contributions, the majority from individuals, which far outweighs other contenders. Jeb Bush has received $11.4 million that way and Bernie Sanders, the surprising contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, has raised $15.2 million. Vice President Joe Biden was in Southampton earlier this month.
Criticized as a candidate who did not relate to voters and came across as cool and distant during her campaign against Barack Obama for the 2008 nomination, Mrs. Clinton has evidenced an easier rapport with reporters and constituents this year. She also demonstrated an easier-going, personal touch when she signed copies of her memoir at BookHampton in East Hampton last year. An article in The Star related a conversation she had with a woman who had injured her leg.
“I broke my elbow a few years back and did physical therapy for it. Have you started physical therapy yet? I hope it goes well for you,” Mrs. Clinton said.