Donors like Sheldon Adelson and Foster Friess promise to support Mitt Romney. | REUTERS Billionaires fall in line

The super PAC mega-donors who dragged out the GOP primary are getting behind the establishment, rather than continuing to back rogue candidates and causes — as some in the Republican Party feared.

Donors like Sheldon Adelson and Foster Friess, who gave millions to anti-establishment presidential primary campaigns, are starting to fall in line — promising to support Mitt Romney and cutting checks to groups fighting for congressional Republicans.


Casino mogul Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who donated more than $15 million to a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, gave $5 million to a super PAC linked to House Speaker John Boehner in February — according to newly released filings. And Adelson is hosting a fundraiser next Friday at one of his Las Vegas hotels for a Boehner umbrella group that works closely with the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, POLITICO has learned.

Last week, Friess, a Wyoming investor who donated $1.7 million to super PACs backing Rick Santorum’s since-aborted presidential campaign, told POLITICO he intended to support third-party groups backing Romney.

And even supporters of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, like homebuilder Bob Perry and investors Harold Simmons and Harlan Crow, are giving six- and seven-figure donations to super PACs backing Romney and establishment Republican candidates.

It’s all good news for Republicans, since the moves suggest big outside donors who supported anti-establishment candidates are prepared to keep playing big in the general — but this time, it’s to beat up Democrats instead of rival Republicans. And the moves come as various factions of the conservative base — some of which had shown signs they’d resist a Romney-led ticket — also are coming together to support him, too.

“With the Republican presidential primary winding down, donors are starting to look at the national battlefield and what it’s going to take to win the White House, keep the House and win the Senate,” said Dan Conston, a spokesman for the Congressional Leadership Fund, the Boehner-linked super PAC. It revealed Sunday that almost all of the $5.1 million it raised in the first three months of the year came from the Adelsons.

“If there’s a President Romney, donors want to see the best case scenario of a Speaker Boehner and a Senate Majority Leader [Mitch] McConnell, and if the president is somehow reelected, the last thing the country needs is a Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and a Senate Majority Leader [Harry] Reid.”

Perhaps equally telling, there’s buzz in GOP finance circles that major donors may be starting to shy away from groups that challenge incumbents in contested GOP primaries.

For instance, conservative operatives told POLITICO that some conservative donors have become hesitant to give to the Campaign for Primary Accountability. The controversial super PAC collected nearly $2 million from mostly conservative donors to target incumbents in both parties, but it raised hackles in the GOP when it aired ads against popular incumbent Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.), who lost a primary to Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.).

A source familiar with the Campaign for Primary Accountability said “members are going to start pressuring donors not to give” to the group and to donate instead to more establishment campaigns.

Another super PAC that supported Kinzinger, the Eric Cantor-linked YG Action Fund, had a disappointing first three months of the year, revealing Friday that it pulled in just $55,000.

To be sure, the group’s support for Kinzinger came toward the end of the reporting period, and officials suggested it might report more big donations in future periods.

The group and a pair of linked nonprofits also bearing the “YG” name — which is short for “Young Guns,” Cantor’s self-styled political brand — are “actively engaged with large donors and apprising them of our activities and plans,” said Brad Dayspring, a YG spokesman.

He suggested the outfit was raising more money through its 501(c)(4) arm, the YG Network, but also brushed aside talk of a rivalry with the Congressional Leadership Fund.

“YG is thrilled that the Congressional Leadership fund had a nice quarter, since those funds are going toward protecting the House majority, which is our common goal,” he said. “We all hope for mutual success and victory.”

He asserted that donors “are starting the process of coalescing around the candidates who share the same type of vision for the country that they do.”

While Cantor, like Gingrich, has embraced Israel as an issue — Adelson’s top issue — Boehner’s operation may have closer ties to Adelson. Former Sen. Norm Coleman, who helps lead a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group affiliated with the Congressional Leadership Fund, serves with Adelson on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Adelson’s spokesman Ron Reese worked for Boehner in Congress and Adelson sat in the speaker’s box in the congressional gallery when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress last year.

Reese wouldn’t comment, but a source close to Adelson said: “Sheldon has a long relationship with Boehner.”

The source was not sure whether the casino billionaire intended to donate to Cantor’s YG groups, but suggested that Adelson chose the Congressional Leadership Fund for his $5 million donation because it was regarded as aligned with the GOP House establishment — including Cantor.

“This group has been blessed by Boehner, as well as Cantor and [House Majority Whip Kevin] McCarthy,” said the source, who said of Adelson, “It’s clear how important he’s taking these house races.”

Adelson, who signaled late last month he believes Gingrich’s campaign is over, is joining with fellow casino magnate Steve Wynn and the American Gaming Association to host a fundraiser at Adelson’s Venetian hotel on Friday, April 27.

The fundraiser will benefit Boehner for Speaker — a joint fundraising committee comprised of Boehner’s campaign committee and his Freedom Project leadership PAC — which is billed as working closely with the RNC and NRCC.