Loading ...Although Adelson hasn’t officially endorsed Rubio, it’s likely just a matter of time. See the following excerpt from yesterday’s Miami Herald:
As GOP presidential candidates take the debate stage Tuesday at an extravagant Las Vegas hotel, they will once again compete for voters in an increasingly unpredictable race. But they are also vying for the attention of the man who owns the building — and no candidate has worked harder than Florida’s Marco Rubio.
The U.S. senator has avidly courted casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, sitting down with him privately numerous times, including a dinner in Washington weeks before launching his campaign in April, and checking in regularly by phone to talk about Israel and the campaign.
All told, Adelson and his Israeli-born wife spent $93 million that cycle [2008], the No. 1 individual donors, by far.
This time, Adelson, whose worth is valued at somewhere between $20 billion and $30 billion, reportedly wants to throw his weight behind a more electable candidate and he’s prepared to spend even more. “I don’t cry when I lose,” he told the Wall Street Journal in 2012. “There’s always a new hand coming up.”
Rubio has benefited from an outside group that has run TV ads featuring his hawkish foreign policy views, including a vow to tear up the Iran nuclear deal, which Adelson loathes. Rubio is also backing legislation Adelson is pushing to crush an expansion of online gambling, which threatens his global casino empire.
Much of Rubio’s supposed favor has been conveyed by people who are close to Adelson, not Adelson himself, who rarely talks to the media.
Adelson is a critic of unions but moderate on social issues and supports stem-cell research and immigration reform.
Adelson does have business interests, and earlier this year Rubio attracted attention when he signed onto a bill that Adelson is trying to get through Congress that aims to curtail online gambling in states, a threat to his casino empire.
Though Rubio has talked about states’ rights and avoiding picking “winners and losers,” he has attributed his support for the bill to a feeling that the Internet has fewer safeguards to protect people from fraud and addiction.
“Rubio calls and says, ‘Hey, did you see this speech? Did you see my floor statement on Iran? What do you think I should do about this issue?’ ” a September New York magazine story quoted an unnamed Adelson friend as saying. “It’s impressive. Rubio is persistent.”
For more on Adelson, see:
Sheldon Adelson – The Dangerous American Oligarch Behind Benjamin Netanyahu