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A shared interest in supporting Israel, fostered over 15 years, is at the heart of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson's support for Newt Gingrich's presidential bid.
It has been decades since America saw a wealthy patron become so identified with a presidential candidate. But Mr. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, account for a large share of the funding for an independent group supporting Mr. Gingrich's presidential bid, giving $5 million this week and $5 million earlier in January.
On Tuesday, the pro-Gingrich political-action committee bought $6 million of airtime in Florida for television ads, according to Rick Tyler, a strategist for the so-called super PAC, Winning Our Future. The Adelsons' money has helped to keep Mr. Gingrich's candidacy aloft after a faltering start in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
Mr. Tyler said Winning Our Future spent about $1 million in Iowa and $3.5 million in South Carolina on TV ads, many of them attacking Mr. Gingrich's top rival, Mitt Romney. Winning Our Future's spending is second only to that of a super PAC supporting Mr. Romney's candidacy, according to the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.
Messrs. Adelson and Gingrich met in 1995, when Mr. Gingrich was Speaker of the House and Mr. Adelson was making the rounds on Capitol Hill to promote legislation backed by pro-Israel activists. Mr. Gingrich wound up supporting the bill Mr. Sheldon favored, and the two men became friends.
Before the Watergate scandal spurred broad changes to campaign-finance rules, contributors such as W. Clement Stone became widely known for making large political contributions.
Mr. Stone, an insurance-company founder, gave more than $8 million to former President Richard Nixon's 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns, according to press accounts at the time of Mr. Stone's death in 2002. Mr. Stone's money in 1968 helped Mr. Nixon top rival GOP candidate George Romney, whose son is currently in a duel with Mr. Gingrich for the party's nomination.
The return of major individual donors such as Mr. Adelson is changing the presidential election process, said Anthony Corrado, a professor of government at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. As recently as 2008, he said, a struggling candidate such as Mr. Gingrich would have been forced to drop out as funds dried up, but Mr. Adelson has allowed Mr. Gingrich to hang on.
Mr. Adelson's ability to play such a large role in helping Mr. Gingrich results from a string of recent court decisions regarding independent groups seeking to influence elections. Among other things, courts eliminated restrictions that barred independent groups from advocating that people vote for or against individual candidates within a month of a primary election.
Mr. Adelson, 78 years old, parlayed a convention business into the Las Vegas Sands Corp. casino empire that includes the Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas and casinos in Macau and Singapore. Forbes magazine ranks him the eighth-wealthiest person in the U.S. at $21 billion.
Friends and associates say Mr. Adelson's backing is motivated by an interest in promoting pro-Israel causes. The bill that took him to Washington in 1995 would have moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
"I thought Sheldon's priorities are his family, gaming and Israel," said a longtime friend, Texas businessman and veteran GOP fund-raiser Fred Zeidman. "Sheldon told me, 'You're wrong. Israel comes second.' "
The money to Mr. Gingrich is just the start, as Mr. Adelson intends to give tens of millions of dollars to other Republican candidates and conservative causes, he has told friends and associates.
A spokesman for Mr. Adelson said he declined to comment for this article.
After Mr. Gingrich left Congress, Mr. Adelson became his key financial supporter. His company spent more than $7 million between 2006 and 2010 in donations to Mr. Gingrich's nonprofit group American Solutions.
Now, said Andy Abboud, vice president of government relations for Las Vegas Sands, Mr. Adelson "wants to make sure we elect people who stand strong behind Israel."
Mr. Adelson has told several friends and associates that he sees President Barack Obama as unfriendly to Israel, and has made it a personal mission to defeat him. In December, Mr. Adelson was quoted in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz saying he agreed with Mr. Gingrich's comment that the Palestinians are an "invented" people.
"He says very clearly this is one of the most important election cycles ever" and plans to be involved in a variety of races he sees as "critical across the country."
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