Billionaire Casino Mogul Sheldon Adelson
Though Adelson said in April that he would make his future contributions through secretive 501(c)(4) to avoid having his multi-million dollar donations publicly disclosed, in June he donated $1 million to Freedom PAC. That contribution represents the lion’s share of the roughly $1.1 million the super PAC has reported raising to date. With his largess, the group reported a $997,500 ad buy Tuesday in support of Mack.
The ad — titled “Proud” — says Mack would be a “conservative senator for change” and would back “less taxes [sic], less spending, and more jobs.” Indeed Mack has signed Grover Norquist’s pledge to never raise taxes for any reason, ever. Mack has also endorsed Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan — who have promised more tax cuts for the rich — as “America’s comeback team.”
Thanks to Citizens United and subsequent court rulings, billionaires like Adelson can now spend as much as they have to fund “independent expenditures” through super PACs — allowing them to completely circumvent the $2,500-per-election individual contribution limit for donations to federal candidates. Adelson’s now-legal attempts to buy the presidency and buy congressional seats like this one have so far cost him and his wife more than $42 million already this cycle.
But if the controversial billionaire gets his way, he stands to get back that and much more. By electing Mitt Romney and a supportive Senate majority with anti-tax Republicans like Mack, Adelson could save $2.3 billion in taxes.
Watch the spot:
Previous in TP Justice
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.