Report: Adelson considering additional Gingrich donation to slow Santorum

Newt Gingrich's billionaire benefactor may again infuse the former Speaker's campaign with desperately needed cash — but this time, out of a desire to stop Rick Santorum from earning the Republican nomination.

Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul who has already given $11 million to a super-PAC supporting Gingrich's efforts, is said to be considering another $10 million donation to the group before Super Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. But Adelson's donation is intended not just to buoy Gingrich's chances.

According to sources close to Adelson cited by the paper, the casino mogul is concerned about Santorum's deeply held social-conservative views, including his strong anti-abortion stance. Adelson associates also signaled that the businessman was most concerned with defeating President Obama, and concerned with Santorum's electability in a showdown with Obama.

But Santorum has been surging in the polls, pulling out to a narrow lead over Romney in surveys of the national Republican electorate and likely voters in pivotal upcoming GOP contests like Michigan and Ohio.

But if Gingrich is unable to regain momentum in the race, Adelson seems more comfortable with Mitt Romney as the eventual Republican nominee — despite the bulk of the millions he has already donated to the Gingrich campaign being spent on ads attacking the presumptive Republican front-runner. The casino mogul and Romney met while the former governor was campaigning in Nevada last week, and establishment Republicans have been lobbying Adelson to stop funding attacks against their likely nominee.

According to CNN, during the meeting Adelson "assured Romney that he will be behind him 100 percent should he become the nominee."

But how — or whether — Adelson ultimately decides to get involved is still uncertain. A source close to the businessman told Bloomberg News as recently as Friday that he was likely done giving to the Gingrich campaign.

The influx of cash would be of enormous help to Gingrich, who has had to forgo campaign opportunities to instead fundraise in recent days. A Web ad released Monday explicitly asked supporters to donate to the campaign, and he spent the early part of the week in California — which does not vote until June — seeking donations.

The campaign told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Gingrich will hold eight closed-door fundraisers over the next three days, and Gingrich plans fundraising stops in Texas, Tennessee, New York and Georgia over the next week.

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