The following is an excerpt from MICHAEL BARBARO and SARAH WHEATON | July 8, 2012 | Nytimes.com |
EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. – A woman in a blue chiffon dress poked her head out of a black Range Rover here on Sunday afternoon and yelled to an aide to Mitt Romney, “Is there a V.I.P. entrance. We are V.I.P.”
No such entrance existed. The line of cars waiting to enter a Romney event at a waterfront estate here had reached 30 deep, testament to the Republican candidate’s fund-raising might on a weekend when he is expected to haul in $3 million in the Hamptons.
Mr. Romney’s aides apologized for the wait: each donor had to be checked off a guest list in the driveway, leading to a major backup. “We are doing our best,” an aide carrying a clipboard said, sweat dripping down her cheeks.
Mr. Romney arrived in this town of outsized homes and conspicuous consumption for the first of three major fund-raisers on Sunday afternoon, his motorcade of Chevrolet Suburbans passing a gleaming line of Bentleys, Porsches and a Mercedes Benzes waiting to deposit guests who paid up to $25,000 a head to hear him speak.
A luncheon fund-raiser was held at the sprawling home of Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire financier and chairman of Revlon. Widely described as the largest estate in East Hampton, it has 40 rooms, nine fireplaces and takes up a mile along Georgica Pond.
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