Hillary Clinton will be in Long Island, N.Y., on Monday for a $2,700 fundraiser hosted by Jay Jacobs, who just returned from traveling to Africa with Bill and Hillary Clinton on a trip with the Clinton Foundation.
Jacobs, a prominent Nassau County Democrat, says he expects around 150 to show up at his Laurel Hollow home and contribute the maximum allowable individual contribution to the Clinton campaign, according to Newsday.
The fundraiser comes just weeks after Jacobs and his wife Mindy Jacobs joined the Clinton Foundation on its trip to Africa and just as the Clintons came under fire for the lack of barrier between their charitable and political donations. A majority of the early fundraisers for Clinton have been hosted by high-dollar donors to the Clinton Foundation.
Following the trip, Jacobs wrote that he plans to increase his financial support for the foundation and said he "would be surprised if virtually everyone else on that trip wouldn’t be doing the same."
The campaign fundraiser was far from his first contribution to the Clintons.
Both Jay and Mindy Jacobs have been making large political contributions to the Clintons since 1995 and also were major fundraisers for Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 presidential campaign. They met their fundraising pledge and were thrilled to avoid the embarrassment of not raising enough money.
"They were expecting only $325,000 in actual commitments from me because I had promised as much as $500,000, but I’m on track to deliver all $500,000," said Jacobs in 2007. "I’m not going to be embarrassed and explain that I tried but didn’t succeed with $500,000."
Jacobs, who has emerged as an outspoken defender of the Clinton Foundation, says one thing he is embarrassed about is how little he has given to the foundation.
Press reports on how much we donate embarrass me. We have NOT GIVEN nearly ENOUGH to #ClintonFoundation. Glad we came to Africa to see.
— Jay Jacobs (@JayJacobs28) May 2, 2015
Jacobs has contributed $500,001 to $1 million to the Clinton Foundation and has made donations as recently as 2014.
Jacobs, who owns multiple sleep-away camps in the Tri-state area, also shelled out the hefty speaking fee this March to get Hillary Clinton to talk at the American Camp Association of New York and New Jersey. He hosted the question and answer session with Clinton during the event—she was paid $260,000 for the speech.
Jacobs is the Nassau County Democratic chairman, and drew a lot of hatred from of Long Island sports fans for leading the opposition to the construction of a new stadium to replace the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The only professional sports team in the area, the New York Islanders, has now left the aging arena to move to Brooklyn.