Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and the ‘Sheldon Adelson Primary’ [View all]

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http://www.thenation.com/blog/178997/jeb-bush-chris-christie-and-sheldon-adelson-primary


Multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson hosts the annual Republican Jewish Coalition conference at his casino in Las Vegas. (Reuters/Vivek Prakash)

As Christie Watch has reported several times in the last few weeks, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will be among several leading Republicans gathering Thursday at Sheldon Adelson’s casino in Las Vegas for the annual get-together of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC). Christie will be jockeying among Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and John Kasich for the blessing of Adelson, a super-billionaire and gambling magnate who’ll soon be deciding where to place his bets in what the Washington Post calls “the Sheldon Primary."

Among other things, the RJC is a pillar of the neoconservative wing of the GOP, and they’re sure to line up strongly against the libertarian, Rand Paul wing of the party—and it’s unlikely that they’ll support unguided missiles such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, either—although lately Rubio has tried to recast himself as a foreign policy hardliner.

According to Forbes, Adelson’s personal wealth is more than $38 billion, making him the eighth richest person in the United States. In 2012, Adelson, a hard-right activist and staunchly pro-Likud backer, singlehandedly kept Newt Gingrich’s campaign alive, though no one except Adelson—including GOP primary voters—believed Gingrich had a prayer of becoming president. (Adelson gave $15 million to Gingrich’s super PAC in 2011-12. Then, when Gingrich dropped out, Adelson poured $30 million into Romney’s campaign.) This time around, and reflecting the growing belief among the stalwarts of the Republican center-right—including the US Chamber of Commerce, Karl Rove, et al.—that the party can’t allow itself to support one of the Tea Party-backed extremists in 2016, Adelson has reportedly decided to throw his bottomless cash at one of the plausible center-right, “moderate” Republicans: Christie, Bush, Kasich or Walker. The Post quotes Victor Chaltiel, a close friend of Adelson’s and himself a big GOP donor:

He doesn’t want a crazy extremist to be the nominee. He wants someone who has the chance to win the election, who is reasonable in his positions, who has convictions but is not totally crazy.