Secrets of the billionaire bankrolling Gingrich's shot at the White House
Gingrich, the latest beneficiary of Adelson's goodwill, suddenly has an outside chance of becoming president. The veteran firebrand upset the entire Republican race by coming from behind to record a stunning victory in South Carolina. The win rocked the campaign of the frontrunner, the former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and pitched the two candidates into a showdown in Florida on Tuesday. If Gingrich can win there, the contest could go all the way to the party's convention in Tampa, Florida, in August. And if Gingrich wins the nomination, then the first person he ought to thank is Adelson.
Together with his wife Miriam, Adelson has donated $10m to a "Super PAC" backing Gingrich's presidential bid. Super PACs (political action committees) are a new group of organisations, created by a recent loosening of campaign finance laws, that can accept unlimited donations as long as there is no official co-ordination with a candidate's campaign. The donations are among the largest from individuals in US political history. While other rivals to Romney struggle for cash, Gingrich does not. The Super PAC, Winning Our Future, has put TV ads all over the airwaves and even bought space for a half-hour anti-Romney documentary that helped give Gingrich his victory in South Carolina.
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Adelson is an impassioned opponent of an independent Palestine. He has given at least $60m to the charity Taglit-Birthright, which brings young Jewish Americans on trips to Israel. He has established a thinktank in Jerusalem and given large sums of cash to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust research centre. In the US he has donated to the lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, helping fund the trips of Republican congressmen to Israel.
All of this dovetails with Gingrich's policies on Israel. Gingrich has vowed that on the very first day of his administration he would order America's Israeli embassy to move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He has called for regime change in Iran and repeatedly denied that Palestinians are a real people, saying instead they have been "invented". In domestic politics, Gingrich has advocated getting rid of child labour laws so that poor children can work as janitors in their schools. He is an ardent fan of slashing federal government and loosening Wall Street regulations. He has warned that President Obama is a socialist who threatens America's traditional way of life. What Adelson thinks of these exact views is less known. Though often happy to talk to the business press, he rarely speaks to the media beyond that. His press spokesman, Ron Reese, said Adelson had turned down at least 50 interview requests in recent days. But Adelson is happy to use his billions to defend himself. In 2008 his lawyers tried to get reporters barred from a case brought by someone suing for compensation they said was owed after a deal in Macao.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/28/newt-gingrich-sheldon-adelson-billionaire
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