Source-Wall Street Journal/Gingrich stance on Israel ties him to Adelson
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."
—Danny Yadron contributed to this article.
Write to Alicia Mundy at alicia.mundy@wsj.com and Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com
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."
—Danny Yadron contributed to this article.
Write to Alicia Mundy at alicia.mundy@wsj.com and Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com
Source-The Atlantic/Sheldon and Miriam Adelson
The shadowy billionaire bankrolling Newt Gingrich's super PAC is a Las Vegas casino magnate who's given tens of millions to Republican and pro-Israel causes over the years -- and now, to boosting Gingrich. Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have each given the Winning Our Future super PAC $5 million to date, and the PAC has committed to spend $6 million on television advertising in Florida. He's also a pugnacious pioneer in the world of gaming and tourism who's changed the face of Las Vegas and Macau alike, a aggressive operator who once lost more than $20 billion in a single year and boasted of getting former Republican House leader Tom DeLay to do his bidding.
Adelson, 78, is a man of many facets, with a long and colorful history in business and right-wing politics. Here are 10 things you might not know about the man whose money has helped change the course of the GOP presidential race.
1. He's a self-made man. The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Adelson, by his own account, grew up in a one-room tenement in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and never graduated college. He showed his entrepreneurial streak early on, selling newspapers starting at 12 and running an operation that stocked candy-vending machines when he was 16. After serving in the Army, he and a brother went into business together, selling toiletries to hotels and vending a car de-icing spray. Adelson (pronounced "add-ul-son") cycled through various ventures before starting, with partners, the COMDEX electronics trade show -- the enterprise that would be the seed of his now-vast fortune. At its height, the show drew 200,000 attendees, but after Adelson's group sold it in 1995, the exposition declined and eventually closed in 2003.
2. He made Las Vegas a convention destination. When Adelson brought COMDEX to Vegas, the gambling mecca was generally hostile to the convention business, but Adelson had a vision of conventioneers filling hotel rooms and spending disposable income on the casino floor. To house COMDEX, he purchased the Sands Hotel -- the decrepit former home of the Rat Pack -- and built a massive convention center next to it, then aggressively marketed it as a destination for other conventions. Today, the convention business is a cornerstone of the Las Vegas economy. Adelson expanded his empire with two high-end hotel-casino-resorts, the Venetian (1999) -- complete with gondoliers ferrying tourists down fake canals -- and the Palazzo, which opened in 2007.
3. He's a union-buster. Some of Adelson's bitterest political battles have been fought in his adopted home state against the forces of organized labor, which has a strong foothold in the casino industry. The Venetian opened in 1999 as the only non-union casino on the Strip and has been the target of protest from the hotel workers union, Culinary 226, ever since. Many Democratic politicians in the state continue to observe the union's boycott of Adelson's properties. Rep. Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democrat now running for Senate in what's likely to be one of 2012's highest-profile races, was once Adelson's top political lieutenant, but the two parted ways over labor issues. Adelson and Berkley have regarded each other as mortal enemies ever since -- even though Berkley, like Adelson, is a hawkish, socially liberal Jew.
4. He spent $30 million on the 2008 election. It didn't work out so well. Adelson poured the money into Freedom's Watch, a "527" independent-expenditure group that was active in congressional races, airing ads across the country that emphasized national security. (It also ran ads targeting Berkley, though her safe Democratic seat was not remotely competitive.) The group's help failed to avert the Republican landslide that November, and it was further hampered by staff infighting; insiders accused Adelson, its nearly sole donor, of micromanaging the organization's activities. It closed shortly after the 2008 general election. Notably, a top official at Freedom's Watch, Carl Forti, is now a chief strategist for Restore Our Future, Mitt Romney's super PAC -- putting him in direct opposition to Adelson's pro-Gingrich super-PAC.
5. He's a Zionist/neocon/right-wing Israel hawk. Much of Adelson's political activity is devoted to boosting the right-wing Israeli line, both in Israel and the U.S. He donated a posh new headquarters to AIPAC, the Israel lobby in Washington, though he reportedly feuded with the organization over activities he saw as unduly pro-Palestinian. He has given $25 million to Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial organization, and $100 million to Birthright, the organization that takes young American Jews on free trips to Israel to bolster their loyalty to the Jewish state. Adelson opposes a two-state solution or any accommodation of Palestinians. When Gingrich recently stirred controversy by referring to the Palestinians as "an invented people," Adelson praised the remark to a Birthright group, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In Israel, Adelson started a free daily newspaper known for its relentless drumbeat of support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other right-wing politicians. The paper, Israel Hayom, has been called "the Fox News of Israel." Adelson's millions of dollars in contributions have purchased access to the highest reaches of the GOP -- during the Bush administration, for example, he hosted both President Bush and Vice President Cheney in his home -- and he has used it principally to push for a hard line on Israel.
6. He's a social liberal. In 2008, Adelson told the Las Vegas Weekly, "I'm socially very liberal. Too liberal." His political activities have never targeted cultural issues, and his hotels market to gay customers. Adelson supported Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 GOP presidential primaries, and his political philosophy is perhaps best understood as Giuliani-style conservatism -- liberal on social issues and preoccupied almost exclusively with a hawkish, pro-Israel, anti-radical-Islam national-security stance, plus opposition to unions.
7. He's big in China. Adelson is credited with revolutionizing the American gaming industry by opening the Chinese port of Macau to the business. In 2002, he secured a gaming license in the seedy former Portuguese colony, and in 2004 he opened the opulent Sands Macau -- the first non-Chinese concession in the territory. The investment would power Sands Corp.'s public offering and turn Adelson from a multimillionaire into a billionaire practically overnight. He now operates three casinos there (one is on the so-called Cotai Strip, a former bay Adelson had filled to turn it into land) and has another in the works. But not everyone has been pleased with Adelson's Chinese success. A former Chinese business partner has successfully sued in Nevada court, claiming Adelson failed to pay him as promised, and the FBI and SEC continue to investigate charges he attempted to bribe Chinese officials, which the company denies. Adelson also once bragged to Chinese officials of using his clout to help the country secure the 2008 Olympics by getting his friend Tom DeLay to kill a human-rights bill in the House. DeLay denied it, saying the bill was withdrawn for reasons that had nothing to do with Adelson.
8. He's made -- and lost -- a massive fortune. By 2008, Adelson's Macau windfall had pushed his net worth to $27 billion -- making him the third richest man in America, according to Forbes. But the financial crisis that year devastated the gaming industry. The stock lost 95 percent of its value, and Adelson lost $24 billion in the space of a few months, dropping to #178 on the Forbes list. Sands teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. To save it, Adelson pumped a billion dollars into the company. Today, the company hasn't made a full recovery, but it's come back substantially. Adelson's wealth was last clocked at $22 billion -- eighth on the Forbes roster.
9. He really, really likes Newt. How the Adelson-Gingrich relationship came about is murky. Adelson recalls meeting Gingrich on Capitol Hill while lobbying on Israel issues in 1995, though a Gingrich operative in Nevada told The New York Times recently that he'd introduced the two to talk about union issues in the late 1990s. However the men met, it's not clear why Gingrich has such a singular hold on the political imagination of Adelson, who has met plenty of politicians. What is clear is that Adelson's support has been generous. Before Gingrich embarked on his current presidential run, Adelson had given $7.7 million to Gingrich's various enterprises. A source close to Adelson said it's a well Gingrich's boosters can keep going back to: "He's willing to do more, depending on how Florida goes." The super PAC is not particularly diversified, the source noted: "There's really no one else bankrolling Winning Our Future." (Rick Tyler, the super PAC's senior adviser, declined to comment on Adelson's involvement.)
10. His wife is a doctor. Adelson married Miriam Ochshorn, his second wife, in 1991. They have two school-age sons together. An Israeli-born physician some years Adelson's junior with signature platinum-blond hair, she specializes in addiction treatment. Her influence has led the couple to start drug-treatment centers in Las Vegas and Tel Aviv. It's an issue that has affected the family directly: a son from Sheldon Adelson's first marriage died of a drug overdose. And in court testimony in 2008, Adelson testified that he was hobbled by painkillers, including methadone, that he took for a neurological condition for much of 2001, a state he characterized as "a little cuckoo."
The shadowy billionaire bankrolling Newt Gingrich's super PAC is a Las Vegas casino magnate who's given tens of millions to Republican and pro-Israel causes over the years -- and now, to boosting Gingrich. Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have each given the Winning Our Future super PAC $5 million to date, and the PAC has committed to spend $6 million on television advertising in Florida. He's also a pugnacious pioneer in the world of gaming and tourism who's changed the face of Las Vegas and Macau alike, a aggressive operator who once lost more than $20 billion in a single year and boasted of getting former Republican House leader Tom DeLay to do his bidding.
Adelson, 78, is a man of many facets, with a long and colorful history in business and right-wing politics. Here are 10 things you might not know about the man whose money has helped change the course of the GOP presidential race.
1. He's a self-made man. The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Adelson, by his own account, grew up in a one-room tenement in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and never graduated college. He showed his entrepreneurial streak early on, selling newspapers starting at 12 and running an operation that stocked candy-vending machines when he was 16. After serving in the Army, he and a brother went into business together, selling toiletries to hotels and vending a car de-icing spray. Adelson (pronounced "add-ul-son") cycled through various ventures before starting, with partners, the COMDEX electronics trade show -- the enterprise that would be the seed of his now-vast fortune. At its height, the show drew 200,000 attendees, but after Adelson's group sold it in 1995, the exposition declined and eventually closed in 2003.
2. He made Las Vegas a convention destination. When Adelson brought COMDEX to Vegas, the gambling mecca was generally hostile to the convention business, but Adelson had a vision of conventioneers filling hotel rooms and spending disposable income on the casino floor. To house COMDEX, he purchased the Sands Hotel -- the decrepit former home of the Rat Pack -- and built a massive convention center next to it, then aggressively marketed it as a destination for other conventions. Today, the convention business is a cornerstone of the Las Vegas economy. Adelson expanded his empire with two high-end hotel-casino-resorts, the Venetian (1999) -- complete with gondoliers ferrying tourists down fake canals -- and the Palazzo, which opened in 2007.
3. He's a union-buster. Some of Adelson's bitterest political battles have been fought in his adopted home state against the forces of organized labor, which has a strong foothold in the casino industry. The Venetian opened in 1999 as the only non-union casino on the Strip and has been the target of protest from the hotel workers union, Culinary 226, ever since. Many Democratic politicians in the state continue to observe the union's boycott of Adelson's properties. Rep. Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democrat now running for Senate in what's likely to be one of 2012's highest-profile races, was once Adelson's top political lieutenant, but the two parted ways over labor issues. Adelson and Berkley have regarded each other as mortal enemies ever since -- even though Berkley, like Adelson, is a hawkish, socially liberal Jew.
4. He spent $30 million on the 2008 election. It didn't work out so well. Adelson poured the money into Freedom's Watch, a "527" independent-expenditure group that was active in congressional races, airing ads across the country that emphasized national security. (It also ran ads targeting Berkley, though her safe Democratic seat was not remotely competitive.) The group's help failed to avert the Republican landslide that November, and it was further hampered by staff infighting; insiders accused Adelson, its nearly sole donor, of micromanaging the organization's activities. It closed shortly after the 2008 general election. Notably, a top official at Freedom's Watch, Carl Forti, is now a chief strategist for Restore Our Future, Mitt Romney's super PAC -- putting him in direct opposition to Adelson's pro-Gingrich super-PAC.
5. He's a Zionist/neocon/right-wing Israel hawk. Much of Adelson's political activity is devoted to boosting the right-wing Israeli line, both in Israel and the U.S. He donated a posh new headquarters to AIPAC, the Israel lobby in Washington, though he reportedly feuded with the organization over activities he saw as unduly pro-Palestinian. He has given $25 million to Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial organization, and $100 million to Birthright, the organization that takes young American Jews on free trips to Israel to bolster their loyalty to the Jewish state. Adelson opposes a two-state solution or any accommodation of Palestinians. When Gingrich recently stirred controversy by referring to the Palestinians as "an invented people," Adelson praised the remark to a Birthright group, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In Israel, Adelson started a free daily newspaper known for its relentless drumbeat of support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other right-wing politicians. The paper, Israel Hayom, has been called "the Fox News of Israel." Adelson's millions of dollars in contributions have purchased access to the highest reaches of the GOP -- during the Bush administration, for example, he hosted both President Bush and Vice President Cheney in his home -- and he has used it principally to push for a hard line on Israel.
6. He's a social liberal. In 2008, Adelson told the Las Vegas Weekly, "I'm socially very liberal. Too liberal." His political activities have never targeted cultural issues, and his hotels market to gay customers. Adelson supported Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 GOP presidential primaries, and his political philosophy is perhaps best understood as Giuliani-style conservatism -- liberal on social issues and preoccupied almost exclusively with a hawkish, pro-Israel, anti-radical-Islam national-security stance, plus opposition to unions.
7. He's big in China. Adelson is credited with revolutionizing the American gaming industry by opening the Chinese port of Macau to the business. In 2002, he secured a gaming license in the seedy former Portuguese colony, and in 2004 he opened the opulent Sands Macau -- the first non-Chinese concession in the territory. The investment would power Sands Corp.'s public offering and turn Adelson from a multimillionaire into a billionaire practically overnight. He now operates three casinos there (one is on the so-called Cotai Strip, a former bay Adelson had filled to turn it into land) and has another in the works. But not everyone has been pleased with Adelson's Chinese success. A former Chinese business partner has successfully sued in Nevada court, claiming Adelson failed to pay him as promised, and the FBI and SEC continue to investigate charges he attempted to bribe Chinese officials, which the company denies. Adelson also once bragged to Chinese officials of using his clout to help the country secure the 2008 Olympics by getting his friend Tom DeLay to kill a human-rights bill in the House. DeLay denied it, saying the bill was withdrawn for reasons that had nothing to do with Adelson.
8. He's made -- and lost -- a massive fortune. By 2008, Adelson's Macau windfall had pushed his net worth to $27 billion -- making him the third richest man in America, according to Forbes. But the financial crisis that year devastated the gaming industry. The stock lost 95 percent of its value, and Adelson lost $24 billion in the space of a few months, dropping to #178 on the Forbes list. Sands teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. To save it, Adelson pumped a billion dollars into the company. Today, the company hasn't made a full recovery, but it's come back substantially. Adelson's wealth was last clocked at $22 billion -- eighth on the Forbes roster.
9. He really, really likes Newt. How the Adelson-Gingrich relationship came about is murky. Adelson recalls meeting Gingrich on Capitol Hill while lobbying on Israel issues in 1995, though a Gingrich operative in Nevada told The New York Times recently that he'd introduced the two to talk about union issues in the late 1990s. However the men met, it's not clear why Gingrich has such a singular hold on the political imagination of Adelson, who has met plenty of politicians. What is clear is that Adelson's support has been generous. Before Gingrich embarked on his current presidential run, Adelson had given $7.7 million to Gingrich's various enterprises. A source close to Adelson said it's a well Gingrich's boosters can keep going back to: "He's willing to do more, depending on how Florida goes." The super PAC is not particularly diversified, the source noted: "There's really no one else bankrolling Winning Our Future." (Rick Tyler, the super PAC's senior adviser, declined to comment on Adelson's involvement.)
10. His wife is a doctor. Adelson married Miriam Ochshorn, his second wife, in 1991. They have two school-age sons together. An Israeli-born physician some years Adelson's junior with signature platinum-blond hair, she specializes in addiction treatment. Her influence has led the couple to start drug-treatment centers in Las Vegas and Tel Aviv. It's an issue that has affected the family directly: a son from Sheldon Adelson's first marriage died of a drug overdose. And in court testimony in 2008, Adelson testified that he was hobbled by painkillers, including methadone, that he took for a neurological condition for much of 2001, a state he characterized as "a little cuckoo."
Source-Forbes.com
At a Glance
Age: 78
Source: casinos, self-made
Residence: Las Vegas, NV
Country of Citizenship: United States
Education: Drop Out, City College of New York
Marital Status: Married
Children: 5
Casino king Sheldon Adelson continues to enjoy a hot hand. His fortune is up $7 billion since last year, as his strong position in the casino-crazy Asian markets has pushed stock of Las Vegas Sands up roughly 50% to a recent $48. (Shares once traded as low as $1.50 in 2009.) Nearly 90% of its operating profit comes from Asia; the thriving Marina Bay Sands casino opened in Singapore last year. Through his majority-owned subsidiary Sands China, Adelson has 3 resorts in Macau. His goal is to push company shares back over $100, near their 2007 peak. Not that he'll spend the money on himself: "The richer I get, the more money goes to cancer research." The cabdriver's son created the computer industry's marquee event, Comdex, in the mid-1980s. He sold it to Japan's Softbank for $862 million 1995 and later built the $1.5 billion Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the 1.2-million-square-foot Sands Convention Center in 1997 in Las Vegas. He opened the $1.9 billion Palazzo resort in 2008.
Marina Bay Sands Hotel- Singapore
At a Glance
Age: 78
Source: casinos, self-made
Residence: Las Vegas, NV
Country of Citizenship: United States
Education: Drop Out, City College of New York
Marital Status: Married
Children: 5
Casino king Sheldon Adelson continues to enjoy a hot hand. His fortune is up $7 billion since last year, as his strong position in the casino-crazy Asian markets has pushed stock of Las Vegas Sands up roughly 50% to a recent $48. (Shares once traded as low as $1.50 in 2009.) Nearly 90% of its operating profit comes from Asia; the thriving Marina Bay Sands casino opened in Singapore last year. Through his majority-owned subsidiary Sands China, Adelson has 3 resorts in Macau. His goal is to push company shares back over $100, near their 2007 peak. Not that he'll spend the money on himself: "The richer I get, the more money goes to cancer research." The cabdriver's son created the computer industry's marquee event, Comdex, in the mid-1980s. He sold it to Japan's Softbank for $862 million 1995 and later built the $1.5 billion Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the 1.2-million-square-foot Sands Convention Center in 1997 in Las Vegas. He opened the $1.9 billion Palazzo resort in 2008.
Marina Bay Sands Hotel- Singapore
Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul behind Las Vegas Sands Corp., has gotten all kinds of press since he and his wife each cut $5 million checks to the pro-Newt Gingrich superPAC Winning Our Future. The first donation brought Newt back from the dead to win the South Carolina primary via a carpet bombing of TV attack ads against Mitt Romney. The latest $5 million, officially from his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson, will help Newt try to take Florida and put the GOP race into even more of a dead heat.
The $10 million donation to the Gingrich superPAC is nothing to Adelson. That’s what the Marina Bay Sands, his biggest hotel/casino, can make in profit in one day. He could give $1 billion away, 5% of his net worth, and not even notice. (Well, maybe he would notice.) But the only thing stopping him from giving $20 million, $100 million or $500 million to the superPAC (there are no limits to what individuals can give) is Gingrich himself, who may balk at the optics of being so far in the pocket of one man.
But who is Sheldon Adelson? He doesn’t talk to the press much. Our last major profile on him was in 2005, just before the global economic collapse that pounded his net worth. Adelson told us then that he’s always seen himself as misunderstood, an outsider, under-reckoned with. “I’ve been met with ridicule in every industry I’ve entered,” he told us. “It’s been that way all my life.” Adelson never went to college. He grew up poor in Dorchester, Mass., the son of Jewish Ukrainian immigrants. His dad drove a taxi. “All the Irish boys from South Boston used to beat up all of the Jewish kids,” he said. As a result, Adelson developed into a tough, ruthless character to his enemies but highly loyal and generous to his friends. From our story:
He sold newspapers at the age of 12, borrowing $200 from his uncle to lease two city corners. In his 30s he moved to New York, where he sold ads for financial trade publications and consulted for companies looking to go public, then returned to Boston to run his own tour business. By the mid-1980s he had built the computer industry’s premiere trade show, Comdex, and had mastered the gift of gouge. He rented floor space at 15 cents a square foot, then leased it to exhibitors for up to $40 a square foot. He charged extra for on-site ads, additional electrical outlets, flowers, phones and loading. Half the fees were paid almost a year in advance, and profit margins hit 70%. “I’m not in business to make money for the other guy. I’m in business to make money for myself.”
The Comdex show turned into the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, which in turn funded the Venetian and Palazzo. Then came Macao and the real money. Connie Bruck wrote a long profile of Adelson in The New Yorker in June 2008, which went into great depth about his politics and interest in conservative Israeli causes and a pro-China agenda. If you want to hear the latest, I did a radio spot yesterday on The Brian Lehrer show on WNYC with Jane Eisner, editor of The Jewish Daily Forward, about Adelson’s business growth and his support for Newt, Israel and other conservative causes.
Adelson’s story is a wild ride. Las Vegas Sands has gone from an IPO in 2004 to becoming arguably the world’s biggest real estate developer today. The monstrous hotels it has built and is building in Singapore and Macao dwarf anything in Las Vegas. The Marina Bay Sands will generate $3 billion in cash flow a year once it’s firing on all cylinders (it opened in mid-2010). As shares of Las Vegas Sands rose and fell hard with the economic bubble and collapse, Adelson’s wealth has moved in unison, going from being undetected before his IPO in 2004 to a peak of $28 billion in October 2007 to $3.4 billion in March 2009 to now back up to $22 billion or so. I would bet that shares of Las Vegas Sands will, as Adelson has predicted, once again reach $100, approximately double where they are today. That’s probably more likely than Gingrich making it into the Oval Office but, then again, you don’t often win betting against Shelly.
Source-Forbes.com/Sheldon could give one billion dollars to Newt
The Real Big Government Record Of Newt Gingrich
Source-The Humble Libertarian.com
Make NO MISTAKE about Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich is NO conservative. He is NO Tea Party candidate. He is an establishment Republican In Name Only. His record and positions on past issues are all we need to know that a Newt Gingrich presidency would not shrink the size of government, increase your liberties, or return America to its Constitution.
The Truth about Newt Gingrich.
DID YOU KNOW?
1. Newt Gingrich supported the TARP bailouts:
At the height of the national debate over the TARP bailout in 2008, Newt Gingrich even told George Stephanopoulos in an interview that he would have voted for TARP if he were still in Congress (video proof). Is that the position of a true conservative? Is that the position of the free market? Is that the position of the Tea Party? No, no, and no!
2. Newt Gingrich supports the individual health care mandate, a key part of ObamaCare:
Newt Gingrich has supported a key provision of ObamaCare for years, and continues to support it to this day: the (unconstitutional) individual mandate. Just this May on Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich said: "I am for people, individuals–exactly like automobile insurance–individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance."
This was the same interview in which he called Paul Ryan's modest budget cuts "radical," "too big a jump," and "right-wing social engineering." And the individual mandate isn't the only aspect of socialized medicine that Newt Gingrich supports. Newt Gingrich also supported Medicare Part D, the greatest expansion to the federal welfare state since LBJ.
3. Newt Gingrich is a Washington insider who made over a million in consulting fees for Freddie Mac:
Newt Gingrich collected at least $1.5 million in consulting fees for Freddie Mac, the big government bully that helped cause the housing crisis. Newt Gingrich claims he warned Freddie Mac officials that the housing market was a "bubble" and "insane," but then why did he defend Freddie Mac to Iowa voters, saying: "every American should be interested in expanding housing opportunities." Isn't that the exact attitude Newt Gingrich claims he warned against at Freddie Mac?
But what about Newt Gingrich's Contract with America?
The Federal government and the National Debt actually grew while Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House. As Ed Crane, president of the Cato Institute lamented in 2000: “the combined budgets of the 95 major programs that the Contract with America promised to eliminate have increased by 13%.” Newt Gingrich has only one record: and that is a record of growing government. He has only one consistent platform, and that is a platform of defending big government "solutions" and a more active role for Washington D.C. in every aspect of your life from cradle to grave. These are the facts and they are a matter of record.
You have a responsibility to your country not to let your fellow Americans be fooled by the false impression Newt Gingrich is working hard to cultivate about himself.
Please share this article with everyone you know-- especially people who have been fooled by Newt Gingrich's excellent speaking skills and carefully calculated lip service to the Tea Party's values. Newt Gingrich's record clearly shows that he supports bank bailouts, more socialized medicine on a federal level, and a more active role for the federal government in every aspect of American life. Newt Gingrich is NO CONSERVATIVE.
At this time of crisis, America CANNOT afford to elect someone with such a spotty record of positions and actions. We absolutely must elect someone with a die-hard record of unyielding commitment to liberty, someone who we absolutely KNOW will shrink the size, role, and influence of the government in Washington. There are only two such candidates on the Republican field today: Rep. Ron Paul and Gov. Gary Johnson.
Thank you for reading.
1.
Supported Bankster Bail Outs
2.
Supported Mandated Health Care
3.
Made Millions of Dollars Lobbying for Corrupt Freddy Mac
The $10 million donation to the Gingrich superPAC is nothing to Adelson. That’s what the Marina Bay Sands, his biggest hotel/casino, can make in profit in one day. He could give $1 billion away, 5% of his net worth, and not even notice. (Well, maybe he would notice.) But the only thing stopping him from giving $20 million, $100 million or $500 million to the superPAC (there are no limits to what individuals can give) is Gingrich himself, who may balk at the optics of being so far in the pocket of one man.
But who is Sheldon Adelson? He doesn’t talk to the press much. Our last major profile on him was in 2005, just before the global economic collapse that pounded his net worth. Adelson told us then that he’s always seen himself as misunderstood, an outsider, under-reckoned with. “I’ve been met with ridicule in every industry I’ve entered,” he told us. “It’s been that way all my life.” Adelson never went to college. He grew up poor in Dorchester, Mass., the son of Jewish Ukrainian immigrants. His dad drove a taxi. “All the Irish boys from South Boston used to beat up all of the Jewish kids,” he said. As a result, Adelson developed into a tough, ruthless character to his enemies but highly loyal and generous to his friends. From our story:
He sold newspapers at the age of 12, borrowing $200 from his uncle to lease two city corners. In his 30s he moved to New York, where he sold ads for financial trade publications and consulted for companies looking to go public, then returned to Boston to run his own tour business. By the mid-1980s he had built the computer industry’s premiere trade show, Comdex, and had mastered the gift of gouge. He rented floor space at 15 cents a square foot, then leased it to exhibitors for up to $40 a square foot. He charged extra for on-site ads, additional electrical outlets, flowers, phones and loading. Half the fees were paid almost a year in advance, and profit margins hit 70%. “I’m not in business to make money for the other guy. I’m in business to make money for myself.”
The Comdex show turned into the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, which in turn funded the Venetian and Palazzo. Then came Macao and the real money. Connie Bruck wrote a long profile of Adelson in The New Yorker in June 2008, which went into great depth about his politics and interest in conservative Israeli causes and a pro-China agenda. If you want to hear the latest, I did a radio spot yesterday on The Brian Lehrer show on WNYC with Jane Eisner, editor of The Jewish Daily Forward, about Adelson’s business growth and his support for Newt, Israel and other conservative causes.
Adelson’s story is a wild ride. Las Vegas Sands has gone from an IPO in 2004 to becoming arguably the world’s biggest real estate developer today. The monstrous hotels it has built and is building in Singapore and Macao dwarf anything in Las Vegas. The Marina Bay Sands will generate $3 billion in cash flow a year once it’s firing on all cylinders (it opened in mid-2010). As shares of Las Vegas Sands rose and fell hard with the economic bubble and collapse, Adelson’s wealth has moved in unison, going from being undetected before his IPO in 2004 to a peak of $28 billion in October 2007 to $3.4 billion in March 2009 to now back up to $22 billion or so. I would bet that shares of Las Vegas Sands will, as Adelson has predicted, once again reach $100, approximately double where they are today. That’s probably more likely than Gingrich making it into the Oval Office but, then again, you don’t often win betting against Shelly.
Source-Forbes.com/Sheldon could give one billion dollars to Newt
The Real Big Government Record Of Newt Gingrich
Source-The Humble Libertarian.com
Make NO MISTAKE about Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich is NO conservative. He is NO Tea Party candidate. He is an establishment Republican In Name Only. His record and positions on past issues are all we need to know that a Newt Gingrich presidency would not shrink the size of government, increase your liberties, or return America to its Constitution.
The Truth about Newt Gingrich.
DID YOU KNOW?
1. Newt Gingrich supported the TARP bailouts:
At the height of the national debate over the TARP bailout in 2008, Newt Gingrich even told George Stephanopoulos in an interview that he would have voted for TARP if he were still in Congress (video proof). Is that the position of a true conservative? Is that the position of the free market? Is that the position of the Tea Party? No, no, and no!
2. Newt Gingrich supports the individual health care mandate, a key part of ObamaCare:
Newt Gingrich has supported a key provision of ObamaCare for years, and continues to support it to this day: the (unconstitutional) individual mandate. Just this May on Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich said: "I am for people, individuals–exactly like automobile insurance–individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance."
This was the same interview in which he called Paul Ryan's modest budget cuts "radical," "too big a jump," and "right-wing social engineering." And the individual mandate isn't the only aspect of socialized medicine that Newt Gingrich supports. Newt Gingrich also supported Medicare Part D, the greatest expansion to the federal welfare state since LBJ.
3. Newt Gingrich is a Washington insider who made over a million in consulting fees for Freddie Mac:
Newt Gingrich collected at least $1.5 million in consulting fees for Freddie Mac, the big government bully that helped cause the housing crisis. Newt Gingrich claims he warned Freddie Mac officials that the housing market was a "bubble" and "insane," but then why did he defend Freddie Mac to Iowa voters, saying: "every American should be interested in expanding housing opportunities." Isn't that the exact attitude Newt Gingrich claims he warned against at Freddie Mac?
But what about Newt Gingrich's Contract with America?
The Federal government and the National Debt actually grew while Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House. As Ed Crane, president of the Cato Institute lamented in 2000: “the combined budgets of the 95 major programs that the Contract with America promised to eliminate have increased by 13%.” Newt Gingrich has only one record: and that is a record of growing government. He has only one consistent platform, and that is a platform of defending big government "solutions" and a more active role for Washington D.C. in every aspect of your life from cradle to grave. These are the facts and they are a matter of record.
You have a responsibility to your country not to let your fellow Americans be fooled by the false impression Newt Gingrich is working hard to cultivate about himself.
Please share this article with everyone you know-- especially people who have been fooled by Newt Gingrich's excellent speaking skills and carefully calculated lip service to the Tea Party's values. Newt Gingrich's record clearly shows that he supports bank bailouts, more socialized medicine on a federal level, and a more active role for the federal government in every aspect of American life. Newt Gingrich is NO CONSERVATIVE.
At this time of crisis, America CANNOT afford to elect someone with such a spotty record of positions and actions. We absolutely must elect someone with a die-hard record of unyielding commitment to liberty, someone who we absolutely KNOW will shrink the size, role, and influence of the government in Washington. There are only two such candidates on the Republican field today: Rep. Ron Paul and Gov. Gary Johnson.
Thank you for reading.
1.
Supported Bankster Bail Outs
2.
Supported Mandated Health Care
3.
Made Millions of Dollars Lobbying for Corrupt Freddy Mac
0 comments:
Post a Comment