Paying $1000 or up to the maximum $2300 to attend a not too fancy cocktail party with a presidential candidate in Greenwich, CT is like going to a theater in other places.

So says the town’s first selectman, James Lash, who believes many of his constituents “just like to see the candidate and don’t mind buying the ticket” to a fund raiser in one of the town’s many mansions.

Although it merited Page 1 treatment in the Times the other day, Greenwich as the destination of choice for presidential money seekers is not new. The two Greenwich Zip codes have long been among the top ten addresses for fund raising pitches, especially for Republicans. Without Greenwich and a few other wealthy towns along the Fairfield County Gold Coast, Connecticut wouldn’t otherwise get what Damon Runyon liked to call a medium hello from presidential candidates.

In recent weeks, there have been opportunities in Greenwich to meet and greet and genteely grease the palms of Mitt Romney, John McCain, Chris Dodd, Rudy Giuliani, Barak Obama and Bill Clinton, who dropped by as a stand-in for Hillary, according to the Times, which ranks Connecticut’s richest town as one of the nation’s must stops on a fund raising circuit that includes New York, Los Angeles and the Silicon Valley.

To date, the really big Greenwich gelt appears to be going to Romney, the most Greenwich like candidate in either party. In the first quarter, Romney edged out Connecticut’s own Chris Dodd $200,627 to $190,900 with Giuliani, McCain, Clinton and Obama also above the $100,000 mark but those figures didn’t include more than a half million Romney added May 7 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. L. Scott Frantz.

For $1000 a person, there was a nice dinner with the candidate and for just $1300 more, a photo. Big bucks, but in Greenwich, as they say, it’s just like going to the movies.

Presidents go to New Haven for honorary degrees, but before they get there, it’s helpful to make a quick stop in Greenwich.