Zooming With the Candidates: In the Hamptons This Summer, Campaign Fundraising Has Gone Virtual

Every four years, the Hamptons—already a giant playground for the world’s rich—transforms itself into a veritable ATM for candidates on both sides of the political divide, with weekends from Memorial Day onward crowded with meet-and-greet cocktail parties and $25,000-a-plate-dinners from Water Mill to Montauk.

This summer, of course, most political events have been canceled due to the pandemic and government restrictions on social gatherings. But party machines are anything but silent.

While some social activity has resumed in smaller numbers—outdoor dinner parties of around 15 to 20 guests have replaced galas of 200 and 300—those bundlers whose ability to squeeze money out of friends and family for their favorite candidates may be less visible, but they are hardly missing out on the action.

They’ve just moved online.

In fact, virtual fundraising has its advantages over the face-to-face variety. The fast and furious pace of a Hamptons summer fundraising schedule in an election year could take even the most intrepid campaigner down by the knees. According to Lisa Hernandez Gioia, the former deputy national finance director for Hillary for America, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential-campaign organization: “We used to have as many as five fundraising events in one day, forcing Hillary to run around and spend a lot of her very valuable time just traveling to these events. Now, they can turn on the Zoom and have [Joe] Biden sit in the basement to raise the same amount of money.”

“The wine’s better at home, and if I’m going to have overpriced lobster salad, it’s better to have it where a crowd of people is not elbowing you,” quipped P.R. executive Robert P. Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committee member and prominent political bundler with a home in Southampton. “We are adjusting to the social distancing. And let’s face it, the Hamptons mastered the art of emotional distancing years ago.”

Zimmerman and other veteran fundraisers agree that Zoom fundraising has been phenomenally successful. Pre-COVID, Democratic Party veteran Alan Patricof organized one of the first fundraisers for Biden in April 2019 for 100 people at the home of Pace Gallery owner Arne Glimcher. But he recognizes that kind of event might not happen again or anytime soon, so to galvanize his friends and colleagues into action, he has turned to writing letters.

“Fundraising has not been held back, and it’s been relatively easy to raise money,” he says. So easy that Patricof sees candidates adopting this less-exhausting but still effective model going forward, post-pandemic. “Now you can hold online calls in any town in the country,” he says. “Zoom lifts geographic constraints, which means it’s less strain on the candidates. Every time I see Joe on Zoom, he’s in great form.”

All indications are that the pandemic hasn’t hurt the bottom line in this year’s race, either. According to the Federal Election Commission, in June 2016 Clinton’s campaign raised $36 million. Biden raised nearly double that amount, $63 million, in June 2020. (President Trump raised less than Biden during the same month, $55 million, but his total war chest is still larger—$353 million compared to Biden’s $278 million.) The FEC does not provide a breakdown of digital versus in-person fundraising, but given the lack of live events (because who even wants to be seen at a political fundraiser in the middle of a pandemic?), it’s logical to assume virtually all of that money is from online fundraising and donations.

While the online campaign pots keep growing, what has been lost (at least for this election) is less quantifiable.

“Nothing can replace the magic of meeting a presidential candidate barefoot in someone’s backyard eating pigs in a blanket,” says Pfizer’s chief corporate affairs officer and Democratic political bundler Sally Susman. “You could have a conversation that would change you. You’d come away feeling, bigger, taller, or better afterward. Zoom simply doesn’t pack the same punch.”

Live events are also a way to introduce new potential candidates to these seasoned fundraising veterans. Susman still remembers her first encounter with Stacey Abrams in Nantucket. “I’ll never forget that moment of being in the same room with her.”

On the other hand, Susman thinks the turn to virtual fundraising could be a catalyst for campaign-finance reform. Memorable as those backyard moments are, they certainly favor the elites. “Most people think there is too much money in politics, and maybe this will cause us to rethink the way we raise money,” she says. “It might be the end of the image of the smoke-filled room of politics.”  

Still, even with the wide-open window of Zoom fundraising, those with the big bucks get more access. Some Zoom calls are as large as 300, and others have only 10 to 12 people. Star-studded Democratic online events that feature big names like George Clooney or President Barack Obama still advertise a $100,000 “pre-event host committee clutch”—a small group of donors who get a few minutes with Biden ahead of the larger fundraiser. To sweeten the deal, it’s possible to have a virtual picture taken with Biden.

New Democratic fundraisers have raised the creative bar too. Singer-songwriter John Legend and actor Erich Bergen (who played Tea Leoni’s assistant, Blake, on Madam Secretary) recently produced a series of four one-hour performances to raise money for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Hold the House fund, which is focused on 30 congressional races.

The A-List performers Bergen and Legend garnered for these productions was as star-studded as they come, including Obama, Julia Roberts, Barbra Streisand, H.E.R., and Billy Porter, just to name a few. After giving levels ranging from $1,000 on the low end to $100,000 at top-tier, Bergen knew he had to provide something spectacular. Each supporter was emailed a password-protected link containing the special show.

“My goal was to create an event so good that people would come back for the second,” Bergen says. ‘“My philosophy is always don’t sell them sizzle, sell them the steak. Give them a show that they actually walk away from saying, ‘Holy shit, that was really good!’’”

Apparently, he succeeded. He says the series raised more than $14 million, well above the original goal of $8 million.

While Democratic fundraising is exploding with enthusiasm this summer, Republican fundraisers were initially lying low.

In past summers Republican Peter S. Kalikow was known to host five or six political fundraisers per summer. In 2016, he cohosted an event for then candidate Trump together with Woody Johnson, who is now Trump’s ambassador to the Court of St. James.

Normally, Kalikow would have at least 200 people on his Montauk lawn, and the formula was pretty straightforward. “Alcoholic beverages were served and crappy hors d’oeuvres,” he says. “I don’t think people were coming there for the hors d’oeuvres. Fifty percent are going because of their hosts, and most of the others are either going to meet the candidate or just go somewhere.”

“As the host I just had to smile and be nice—and make sure the cars don’t get stolen,” he jokes. But In 2020, Kalikow is strictly writing checks and making a few phone calls for congressional races.

He claims President Trump doesn’t need his fundraising capabilities this year. “No sitting president running for reelection needs any help,” he says.

However, Team Trump clearly disagrees. This weekend, on the South Fork of Long Island, there are at least two scheduled events organized by the Trump Victory Fund—as well as a dinner planned for tonight, where Donald Trump Jr. and girlfriend and campaign fundraiser Kimberly Guilfoyle will be the featured guests. According to CNBC, tickets for this dinner start at $2,800 per person for the reception and go up to $50,000 per couple to attend the dinner.

On Friday, Donald Jr. and Guilfoyle, who tested positive for COVID-19 in July but seems to have recovered, are kicking off the weekend with a Trump boat parade that will travel from Noyac Bay to the Montauk Lighthouse. “We’ve seen them all over the rest of the country, and we’re getting one going here,” Donald Jr. says in a video posted on the Boaters for Trump Facebook page. (The boat owner with the most “outrageous” display of Trump support will reportedly get a seat at a dinner in Southampton the next night.)

As the New York Post reported this week, that Saturday night dinner will be attended by the president and will cost $580,600 per couple. A contest is being held in advance of the fundraiser and dinner; the winner will fly to Southampton for a meet and greet and then a photo op with the president. 

For Long Island denizens hoping that a silver lining of the pandemic was to have one summer without the presidential snarl of traffic on Montauk Highway, sadly, it was not to be.