Ferry Godmother
If you’re wondering where your favorite Democratic presidential candidate has spent his or her August, chances are the answer will include Martha’s Vineyard.
The top tier of ’08 hopefuls has been making the rounds across the popular getaway for moneyed (and largely liberal) vacationers off the coast of Massachusetts.
On Friday, John Edwards held a $50-per-person event for about 500 supporters, although a larger donation got you a bit more face time.
On Tuesday, Barack Obama arrives for a $1,000- to $2,300-per-person fundraiser.
Yet neither event is likely to match the bash that was Hillary Clinton’s Saturday night fundraiser. Nearly 2,000 people paid $50 apiece to rub elbows with her and Bill at the rally, whose hosts included actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, and Washington stalwarts Ann and Vernon Jordan. The Vineyard’s own Carly Simon even sang “Devoted to You” to the onetime first couple.
After that, it was onto a $1,000-minimum event at the home of Frank Biondi, a former chief executive of Universal Studios and Viacom. Even local businesses got into it: Beetlebung, a bohemian-styled coffee and apparel store, was offering its “Hillary Special” of 20 percent off anything emblazoned with a peace symbol. (Who knew Hillary still had hippie cred?)
The Clintons hit John Kerry territory as well: On Friday they attended a fundraiser on neighboring Nantucket island, at the vacation home of Washingtonians Elizabeth and Smith Bagley.
The recent trifecta of Democratic candidates comes on top of a visit a week prior by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who drew a crowd of 200 at $50 each, according to the Martha’s Vineyard Times.
And the island’s seemingly few Republicans got their moment in the sun Aug. 18, when Mitt Romney held a $500- to $2,300-per-person fundraiser.
