The Hamptons will take their place this summer alongside Iowa and New Hampshire as regular stops for the 2008 presidential candidates.

The candidates visiting with New Yorkers on summer weekends won’t be seeking early votes, but something that can help win them: money.

“I would expect to see a lot of motorcades and a lot of Secret Service out here this summer,” a Democratic political consultant, Morris Reid, said. “You’ve got people out here with deep pockets, with the ability to write checks and the ability to influence other people to write checks.”

While the Hamptons fund-raising season is not expected to ramp up until after the next campaign finance disclosure deadline at the end of June, key donors are already reserving dates with the campaigns, and in some cases they have been penciled onto the calendar.

Indeed, political analysts note that while last summer was a hectic period of money raising in the run-up to the heated congressional elections, this summer and next, which comes just months before the 2008 general election, will be the most intense seasons of all.
Mr. Reid said he anticipates holding separate fund-raisers for Senator Clinton and Senator Obama at his home near Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton. The billionaire venture capitalist Wilbur Ross, who held a fund-raiser for Mayor Giuliani in Palm Beach, Fla., a few weeks ago, told The New York Sun he planned to hold another for the mayor this summer at his Southampton home. And sources with Senator McCain’s camp said the Arizona Republican has a fund-raiser scheduled for June 21 at a private home in Southampton.

Hamptonites say they expect Democrat and Republican candidates to be out in full force, and not just those leading in the polls. Mrs. Clinton, who along with President Clinton put the political Hamptons fund-raising circuit on the map, will no doubt be out with hat in hand again this year, though some of her donors have grumbled about her regular calls for money.

“It’s going to be 10 people from each party showing up looking for money,” a restaurateur and advertising executive, Jerry Della Femina, said. “You’ll get the governor of New Mexico. You’ll get some representative from California that you’ll never hear from again. But they all seem to find one kingmaker in the Hamptons.”

“If they can’t suck money out of the Hamptons, a candidate really has to throw in the sponge,” Mr. Della Femina, a Republican, added.
Those king-, or perhaps queen-, makers are crucial, as the candidates are already breaking all previous fund-raising records and could end up spending up to $500 million on the road to the White House. Federal campaign finance rules allow an individual to give a candidate a maximum of $2,300 for the primary and another $2,300 for the general election. Yet regulations do not bar supporters from hosting fund-raisers or encouraging friends to get their checkbooks out.

“Alan Patricof, for example, is not only worth the $4,600 he gives but is worth 100 times that if he can get others involved,” Mr. Reid said, referring to one of Mrs. Clinton’s biggest and wealthiest supporters. “He can stand up and tell his friends that this is an important cause to him.”

Reached by phone, Mr. Patricof, a major Democratic political philanthropist, said he currently has no fund-raisers planned.
Not all of the fund-raisers will be held on estates hidden behind perfectly manicured hedges, Mr. Reid said. The consultant is expecting at least a few “lower dollar” fund-raisers at bars and clubs. Tickets for those events could sell for $250 a person, rather than the $2,000 price tag that is often standard at private seaside homes.

Such smaller-scale events are useful because candidates are trying not only to raise the most money but also to accrue more donors as a way of signaling that they are making inroads with everyone, not just the über-wealthy.

Mr. Reid also noted that it won’t just be presidential candidates mining for cash in the Hamptons this summer, but also those, like Senator Schumer, who will be raising money for congressional races.

Messrs. Reid and Della Femina both noted that the fund-raisers are driven as much by ego and bet hedging as they are by purist concerns for the country.

“Let’s be honest,” Mr. Reid said. “You’ve got people thinking about deals like, ‘Do I want to be in the Cabinet?’ ‘Do I want to be an ambassador?’ ‘And do I want to get my wife on the Kennedy Center Board?'”

Mr. Della Femina added: “The Hamptons are filled with people who are winners Monday through Friday. They take their choice of candidate very seriously. Some of them are powerful enough people who may be saying to themselves: ‘This is it. I’m going to be secretary of the treasury.'”

The editor and publisher of the Hamptons must-read Dan’s Papers, Dan Rattiner, said that while presidential candidates were out in 2004 to raise money, the crop of 2008 candidates has started fund-raising earlier and will have both this summer and next to make the rounds.

And, Mr. Della Femina said, it is always easier to convince people to give money on the weekend. “During the week, you know you’re being hustled,” he said. “But they get you on the weekends so you’re really relaxed.”