Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

politics:

Sands CEO Adelson continues campaign spending spree

adelson

Christopher DeVargas

Las Vegas Sands CEO and Chairman Sheldon Adelson makes a few remarks after receiving the Hospitality Industry Leader of the Year award at the eighth-annual Vallen Dinner of Distinction, April 26, 2012.

Related content

Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is again opening his wallet to conservative political groups, but this time he’s not writing $10 million checks.

Adelson this month is spreading what amounts to pocket change to lower-profile super PACs that aim to boot President Barack Obama from office and elect Republican lawmakers.

As of this month, Adelson, together with his wife Miriam, have donated over $40 million to candidates and committees for the 2012 election, federal records indicate. They also gave $5 million to help bankroll the Republican National Convention.

But this month, they’ve gone smaller, according to Federal Election Commission records. Thus far, they’ve given:

* $1 million to the Ending Spending Action Fund, a group run by fellow billionaire Joe Ricketts that features ads with disaffected 2008 Obama voters.

* $1.5 million to the Independence Virginia PAC, a super PAC backing Republican Senate candidate George Allen.

* Just under $800,000 to the New American Energy Opportunity Foundation, a 501(c)4 nonprofit airing radio ads hitting Obama’s energy plan.

* $190,000 to the Hispanic Leadership Fund Action super PAC.

The smaller donations are somewhat of a departure for the Adelsons, who most notably bankrolled the pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future with $15 million, and later began funding pro-Romney super PAC Romney Restore Our Future, which like all super PACs may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to promote or attack political candidates.

The Adelsons have contributed $10 million this year to Restore Our Future, which has this election cycle spent more money than any other super PAC through September.

Adelson also helped fund the conservative Congressional Leadership Fund, Texas Conservatives Fund, YG Action Fund and Freedom PAC super PACs, federal records show.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy