June 7, 2012

Sheldon Adelson Opens Up His Wallet, Vol. MCXVI

<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&searchterm=money&search_group=#id=65802829&src=32dea5570a2d2ff81afcca1e74c3bcff-1-17">Aptyp_koK </a>/Shutterstock

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


When Newt Gingrich finally ended his presidential campaign in May, he went out of his way to thank the man who did more than anyone to try to get him to the White House—Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the chief patron of the pro-Newt super-PAC Winning Our Future. Adelson, along with his wife, Miriam, gave a combined $21 million to Winning Our Future during the GOP primary, much of which went to television spots attacking Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital.

Now that the primary is over, it’s Romney who’s trying to smooth things over with the mega-donor. In May, while the political world fixated on the GOP nominee’s summit with Donald Trump in Las Vegas, Romney quietly held a 45-minute meeting with Adelson. Adelson can’t give Romney’s campaign more than $2,400, so the real purpose was to get him to open up his wallet to a super-PAC, where he could give as much as he wanted.

And now it appears to be paying off. Politico‘s Ken Vogel reports that Adelson has just cut his first $1 million check to the pro-Romney super-PAC  Restore our Future. And there signs he’s planning on giving more. To wit: Vogel notes that Adelson is in talks with Rudy Giuliani (!!) about bankrolling a new super-PAC devoted to electing GOP senate candidates.

A million is pocket change by Adelson’s standards. But then again, it’s only June.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate