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No. 272578
Until recently, most of the Adelsons’ contributions went to Winning Our Future, a super PAC that provided critical support to Newt Gingrich, Mr. Romney’s rival during the Republican primaries. Winning Our Future spent millions of dollars pounding Mr. Romney with advertisements this winter, injecting into the race some of the toughest and most sustained attacks on his record at the private equity firm Bain Capital. And Mr. Adelson has publicly expressed doubts about Mr. Romney, describing him as timid compared with Mr. Gingrich.
But although Mr. Romney is barred from asking Mr. Adelson to contribute large checks to the super PAC, he has been courting the billionaire since January, around the time Mr. Adelson and his wife began pouring millions of dollars into Winning Our Future. At the time, Mr. Adelson relayed assurances that he would support Mr. Romney’s candidacy even more generously should he become the nominee.
After Mr. Gingrich dropped out in early May, Mr. Romney and Mr. Adelson met for lunch later in the month at Mr. Adelson’s Las Vegas hotel, The Venetian. Last week, Politico reported that Mr. Adelson was considering a contribution of $1 million to $10 million to Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super PAC.
Mr. Adelson is close to many of Mr. Romney’s other supporters, particularly wealthy Jewish donors, with whom he has served on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition. And he has ties to Restore Our Future: the group’s political director, Carl Forti, helped run Freedom’s Watch, an issue advocacy group that spent $17 million during the 2008 election.
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