Republican hopefuls are appearing in Vegas in part to court mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. 2016ers woo Vegas donor crowd

LAS VEGAS – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie won hearty applause with major Jewish donors after a speech Saturday heavy on appeals for GOP unity and strong support for Israel.

Christie mostly avoided foreign policy specifics, but he enraptured the crowd gathered for the Republican Jewish Coalition spring meeting with tales of his own trips to Israel, and criticism of the Obama administration’s foreign policy.


“We cannot have a world where our friends are unsure of whether we’ll be with them, and our enemies are unsure of whether we’ll be against them,” Christie said to loud applause from a crowd where distrust of Obama’s support for Israel runs deep. Christie recounted meeting the hawkish Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an RJC favorite, and being “extraordinarily taken by his strength and resolve.”

( Also on POLITICO: Combative Christie tries to turn the page)

Christie was just one of the big-name Republicans considered possible contenders for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination to appear at the event, which also featured speeches from Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida.

Their trips to the desert were seen as efforts to court GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, whose casino hotels played host to the event, and who spent upwards of $100 million boosting various Republicans in 2012.

”Hey listen, Sheldon, thanks for inviting me,” Kasich said, at the conclusion of a lunch speech, before which he talked to the casino magnate about his upbringing. “I don’t travel to these things much, but this is one that I thought was really, really important.”

( Also on POLITICO: Palin rips media's focus on Christie)

All the prospective presidential hopefuls pitched the crowd on their pro-Israel bonafides — the top issue for Adelson and many RJC donors — and all were expected to meet privately with Adelson over the course of the weekend.

Adelson skipped Walker’s speech,which was light on foreign policy specifics, but did include an attempt to establish cultural common ground. Walker explained that he lights a menorah at the governor’s mansion during Hannukah and named his son “Matthew” – which means “gift from God” in Hebrew.

Adelson entered the hall midway through Christie’s, sitting in a reserved seat in the front row.

(PHOTOS: 2016: Who’s next?)

Christie stepped on a fault line in highly fraught Middle East politics, when he referred to the “occupied territories,” a term some Zionists eschew. But top GOP bundler Lew Eisenberg said after the speech that Christie proved “he understands the important of Israel and the interdependency of the United State and Israel.”

Morton Klein, president of the hawkish Zionist Organization of America, was less forgiving. He confronted Christie after his speech about his use of the term, telling POLITICO he explained to the New Jersey governor that “at minimum you should call it disputed territories.”

Christie was non-committal, said Klein, who concluded afterwards that the governor “either doesn’t understand the issue at all, or he’s hostile to Israel.”

But in a private meeting with Adelson later, Christie made clear “that he misspoke when he referred to the ‘occupied territories,’” according to a source familiar with the conversation. In the private meeting, Christie stressed that the remark was “not meant to be a statement of policy” and apologized “for any confusion that came across as a result of the misstatement,” the source said.

(Also on POLITICO: Taxpayers fund teaching creationism)

While audience questions were submitted in advanced and selected by RJC staff, the group’s executive director Matt Brooks asked Christie about the lessons he learned from the George Washington Bridge traffic controversy.

“It’s about me being a lot more questioning about things that are going on. Not to just trust based upon long-term relationships or past performance,” Christie said, and “sending very clear signals” to staff “that certain conduct and actions are acceptable and certain are completely unacceptable. And so I’m going to redouble my efforts to make sure I send those signals, both directly and indirectly.”

Christie called for an end to GOP in-fighting, suggesting it was hindering the party’s ability to win elections.

“It’s time for us as a party to stop killing each other,” he said. “I’m not in this business to have an academic conversation. I am not in this business to win the argument. I’m in this business to win elections. And here’s why – because when we win elections, we get a chance to govern and we get to mold and shape the future of our state and country. When we lose, we don’t.”

Kasich spoke after Christie, delivering a version of his stump speech that was heavy on biography, but also dealt extensively with his efforts to clamp down on substance abuse — a top issue for Adelson’s wife Miriam Adelson — and defending his decision to accept $14 billion in Medicaid funds from the federal government as part of Obamacare.

“Some governors have decided to leave it in Washington. I might have thought about leaving it there, but I happen to know what they would do with it down there,” he said, to laughter, adding that the state was using the money to fund substance abuse programs. “The stronger our state is, the more we can do to help people who live in the shadows.”

Follow @politico