Will The Adelsons Buy Marco Rubio The Oval Office?

Overall, Jeb Bush is winning the Republican Party big money primary, some say by stretching the definition of what's legal and outsourcing his whole campaign to his Super PACs. He may be hauling in the most cash from multimillionaires but that hasn't translated-- at least not yet-- to popularity among base voters. And now other candidates are starting to show they can raise substantial campaign cash as well.

Among the GOP's biggest sugar daddies, Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers seem to be getting behind, respectively, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker (although the Kochs say that Bush, Rand Paul, Rubio and Ted Cruz are still in the running, along with Walker, for their help). Yesterday, Alex Isenstadt reported that the Adelsons, who spent $100 million in the 2012 campaign, are going to finance Rubio. Rubio's total subservience to right-wing Israeli politics is exactly what Adelson is looking for in a candidate.

Winning the backing of the 81-year-old Adelson would give Rubio a serious boost in his quest for the 2016 Republican nomination. His campaign is predicated on the idea that he can appeal to a broad swath of primary voters and stay in the race long enough to outlast well-funded establishment favorites like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. To do so, he’ll need the support of deep-pocketed contributors like Adelson, whose $32 billion net worth makes him the nation’s 12th-richest person, according to Forbes.

...Adelson’s attraction to Rubio is in no small part centered on the Florida senator’s outspoken support for Israel, an issue near and dear to the billionaire’s heart. Rubio has reached out to Adelson more often than any other 2016 candidate, sources close to Adelson say, and has provided him with the most detailed plan for how he’d manage America’s foreign policy.

Since entering the Senate in 2011, Rubio has met privately with the mogul on a half-dozen occasions. In recent months, he‘s been calling Adelson about once every two weeks, providing him with meticulous updates on his nascent campaign. During a recent trip to New York City, Rubio took time out of his busy schedule to speak by phone with the megadonor.

The connection is also personal. Adelson, whose father emigrated from Lithuania and worked as a cab driver, has come to admire Rubio, the son of a bartender and a hotel maid, for his compelling life story. On March 2, the two had a private dinner at Charlie Palmer, a posh steakhouse at the foot of Capitol Hill. There, they talked for hours about their families and personal lives. “It lasted quite a while,” said one source close to Rubio.

...During the 2012 campaign, Adelson made his voice heard loud and clear. Of the $100 million he spent on Republican causes, about $15 million was devoted to supporting Gingrich, his favored candidate in the primary. His benevolence enabled the former House speaker, who was waging a long-shot campaign, to remain in the primary until late April.

This election, though, Adelson’s advisers say he’s determined to get behind a more mainstream candidate who has a better chance of becoming the party’s nominee. “He doesn’t want the crazies to drive the party’s prospects into the ground,” said one person close to him.

He’s held private meetings with most of the Republican candidates, many of whom have courted him with fervor. But he’s become particularly fond of Rubio, who attended last year’s RJC meeting but who will not be present this year. He has told some friends that the senator would offer the party a freshness that most other contenders, including Bush, cannot.

In private, Adelson, who’s had labor disputes with workers at his Venetian property, has also said positive words about Walker and that he admired how Wisconsin governor handled his 2011 clash with organized labor.

But Adelson’s desire to get behind an electable candidate may also mean that others with whom he has close ties will be left by the wayside. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who shares many of Adelson’s foreign policy views, and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who last year sponsored an anti-Internet gambling bill that the casino magnate supported, will be appearing at the RJC confab on Saturday in hopes of winning the mogul’s support.

But, Adelson’s advisers say, there remain questions about whether either will be able to establish the kind of broad national following that would be needed to win the presidency.

For another 2016 hopeful, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, it’s not about winning Adelson’s endorsement-- it’s about making sure he doesn’t come after him.

During an appearance on a Jewish-themed radio program last month, Paul, who’s come under fire from the neoconservative wing of his party for his more isolationist foreign policy views, said he’d recently had a private meeting with Adelson and his wife, Miriam, and asked him about a report that he was considering funding a campaign against him.

“They assured me there was no truth to that,” Paul said.

Even if Sheldon and Miriam aren't going to directly fund a series of attacks on Paul, others already are. Lindsey Graham says he's running so that he can debate Paul and warn Republicans how dangerous he is. And his best bud, John McCain, has also been out on the warpath against Paul, claiming he's the worst Republican in the field on matters pertaining to national security.

"Sen. Paul is the worst possible candidate of the 20 or so that are running on the most important issue, which is national security," McCain told Fox News' Neil Cavuto. "The record is very clear that he simply does not have an understanding about the needs and the threats of United States national security."

McCain was responding to Paul's Tuesday comment that McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were Obama's "lapdogs."

And even though McCain relentlessly mocked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) earlier this week, he said he'd prefer Cruz over Paul.

"Ted Cruz has a much better handle on our national security issues," McCain said.