Multimilionário judaico quer a derrota de Obama

Sheldon Adelson, one of the world’s richest men, has long been active in conservative causes. By some estimates worth as much as $25 billion, Mr. Adelson presides over a global empire of casinos, hotels and convention centers whose centerpiece is the Venetian in Las Vegas, an exuberant monument to excess. While Mr. Adelson’s activism in Israel has been very high-profile, he had been much more private about his political efforts in the United States. That changed in 2012, when Mr. Adelson and his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, moved to the forefront in a new trend of the super-rich giving larger than ever support to candidates. By June, the couple had donated at least $35 million to pro-Republican groups known as super PACs, along with several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of $2,500 checks directly to federal candidates. That was more than twice as much money as the closest competitors for the title, the conservative Texas billionaire Harold C. Simmons and his wife, Annette, making Mr. Adelson a uniquely powerful force in the annals of presidential politics. Mr. Adelson was also committed to give at least an additional $10 million to conservative organizations known as 501(c)(4) groups. They are named after the section of tax law under which they are organized and are not allowed to engage in full-time campaign activity. Unlike super PACs, they are not required to disclose their donors. Mr. Adelson has committed to donate at least $10 million to the Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, founded by Karl Rove, according to people with knowledge of his donations. He has discussed contributing another $10 million to groups aligned with Charles and David Koch, the billionaire oil and chemical executives who founded Americans for Prosperity, another issue group. In an interview with Forbes magazine, Mr. Adelson suggested he would consider personally spending as much as $100 million on the 2012 elections. In July, an anti-Obama Republican group called the Republican Jewish Coalition said it planned to begin a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign backed by Mr. Adelson targeting voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The campaign, called “My Buyer’s Remorse,’' uses testimonials from people who say they regret supporting Mr. Obama because of his economic policies and his posture toward Israel, in hopes of cutting into the wide advantage Democrats have held over Republicans among Jewish voters. The New York Times