EAST HAMPTON, N.Y.


EVERY few years the 1-percentiness of the Hamptons gets that much 1-percentier.


Sure, there are exclusive staples: P. Diddy’s white party; the Apollo in the Hamptons benefit (225 attendees who pay as much as $125,000 a table); and the Hampton Classic, Long Island’s answer to Royal Ascot.


But nothing says “I’m kind of a big deal” like attending one of the quadrennial presidential fund-raisers, which are the social events of the season for well-heeled Hamptonites willing to pay a local carpenter’s annual salary — or much more — to hobnob with a sitting or potential president.


Yet for one important subset of the East End political class, Democrats, there will be no big-ticket presidential soiree this year. There will be no beachside bragging rights (“I was telling Barack just last night”) and, perhaps as important, no chance to make a casual if expensive suggestion for lighter industry regulations, better campaign commercials or a tweak in his approach to Israel.


For now, they will have to be content with memories of soirees past: John Kerry playing “Brown Eyed Girl” under a tent with Jimmy Buffett, with the Atlantic Ocean providing gentle percussion; or the bacon-wrapped Montauk tuna that Daniel Boulud prepared especially for them, and which they washed down with the smooth tonic of Bill Clinton’s campaign poetry. Word is trickling out to local, and still-loyal, rich Democrats that President Obama will almost certainly skip the Hamptons fund-raising circuit this election year, leaving all the fun to supporters of his opponent, Mitt Romney, who heads to a trifecta of top-dollar fund-raisers here this weekend.


Mr. Romney is expected to pull in $3 million from an event at the Creeks, the estate of Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire financier and Revlon chairman, where tickets range from $5,000 for lunch to $25,000 for a V.I.P. photo reception. Another will be held at the home of Clifford M. Sobel, an ambassador to Brazil under President George W. Bush, and a final dinner will take place at the Southampton estate of the billionaire industrialist David H. Koch, where the going rate for entry is $75,000 a couple and $50,000 a person.


Mr. Romney’s campaign seeks secrecy when it comes to its fund-raising events, but organizers suggested that these would not be the showstoppers of the Democratic events of yore. As one member of his finance team put it, “There’s enough interest in stopping Obama that you don’t need to hire entertainment and celebrity chefs.” Besides, the real estate should be entertainment enough.


At Mr. Koch’s estate, the guests will be treated to one-of-a-kind scenery as they wait for face time with a possible president. Tucked into the Southampton dunes, Mr. Koch’s home is valued at about $18 million by the real estate Web site Zillow, which reports that it has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms. Its backyard is the sea.


But the jewel of the day is Mr. Perelman’s. With 9 fireplaces, 40 rooms and an expansive wine cellar, his estate makes the Koch spread look modest by comparison. Sitting on 57 acres, it was built for the painter Albert Herter in 1899, and when it last went up for sale in 1991 (for $25 million), The New York Times described it as “the largest and most spectacular estate in the Village of East Hampton, with more than a mile of frontage on Georgica Pond and a view of the Atlantic Ocean beyond.” That article also said that an American Conifer Society Bulletin — for tree enthusiasts — had called its grounds “the eighth wonder of the horticultural world” and “the most outstanding private conifer collection in the United States, a living work of art.”


Mr. Perelman’s representatives indicated that lunch on Sunday would be kosher, as Mr. Perelman keeps a kosher home, er, palace.


It is all a particular letdown for those Democratic Hamptonites who had become accustomed to the go-go days of the Clintons, who were happy to have the adulation, scenery and campaign cash here wash over them like warm late-summer waves. Their midterm 1998 fund-raiser drew the gamut of neighborhood celebrities: Steven Spielberg, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, to name a few.


“Where are the Clintons now that we need them in the Hamptons, vacuuming up money like it’s shells on the shore,” said Ken Sunshine, the celebrity public relations executive and Democratic fund-raiser, who has a house in Westhampton. Still, he confessed, “A lot of people are really bored out there and looking for stuff to do.”


Hopes had been raised by chatter of a late-August event featuring the president at Mr. Spielberg’s estate by Georgica Pond, but representatives for Mr. Spielberg and the Obama campaign insisted that no such thing had been discussed. There is talk about a visit by Joe Biden, but, well, this is a crowd accustomed to presidential-level service in all things — including presidential fund-raising.