Sheldon Adelson’s Spider Web - Where special interests intersect with immigration
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Sheldon Adelson is the 10th richest person in the world — some say the eighth, but why quibble about a few billion dollars. Undoubtedly, he’s among the one percent of the one percent of America’s political elites. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that during the 2012 elections, Adelson gave $20 million to Winning Our Future, the super PAC that promoted Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid, then poured $30 million into the Restore Our Future, one of the super PACs supporting former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He also underwrote GOP operative Karl Rove’s political operation to the tune of $23 million. All told, Adelson and his wife invested $100 million in the 2012 campaign sweepstakes, more money for one election than anyone else in American history.1
James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times writes, “Casino mogul and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson is pro-choice on abortion, in favor of eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants, supportive of ‘socialized’ healthcare — that makes him sound like America’s most committed liberal.”2 He really isn’t, however.
Sheldon Adelson is simply a man of special interests. Very special interests. First and foremost there is his devotion to Israel. No one has given as much money or lent as much political capital to Israel. That cause is followed by issues mainly impacting his business, such as regulations dealing with gaming casinos and immigration “reform”— ensuring cheap labor for his Las Vegas properties.
It’s hard to total up his pro-Israel philanthropic largesse: in 2007, he established the Adelson Family Charitable Trust, which donated $200 million to Jewish and Israeli causes including Tel Aviv’s Yad Vashem Museum and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Perusing the Internet finds several more recent investments: $180 million for a youth exchange program, $67 million to a medical research center, $50 million to expand an education campus, and a $16 million gift given towards Israel’s attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon.
When it comes to cornering and protecting the gambling market, Adelson has no peer: he made more money in the last three years than any other American. His Las Vegas Sands Corporation is the largest casino company in the world, with annual revenues of more than $11 billion — it’s been estimated that his worldwide gaming interests earn him $1 million an hour.
To fight off new attempts to open gambling to Internet usage, Adelson has just sketched out a comprehesive campaign utilizing everything from slick media ads to high-priced lobbyists. We’ll soon be hearing a lot about how Web-based gambling lures children into a dark world, empowers criminal activity, and will produce little revenue for the states. Adelson doesn’t like to lose. He describes himself to professional competitors and political challengers this way: “I didn’t go to business school. The name of my game is to eat the other guy’s lunch.”
Sheldon Adelson approaches the immigration “reform” issue with the same aggressiveness. He says that, “As a Republican, it’s my view that efforts to complete immigration reform should be led by our party,” and he dismisses those who have concerns about the invasion of illegal aliens as, “on the outer fringes." ...
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