With less than two weeks to Election Day, chalk up another high-dollar donation from an out-of-state billionaire to the pro-George Allen super PAC, Independence Virginia.
On Wednesday, Independence Virginia PAC reported a $1.5 million donation from Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.
The huge cash drop comes on the heels of $1 million (in four contributions) to the same super PAC from Texas home-builder Bob Perry just weeks ago.
Like Perry, Adelson is a well-known GOP donor, and in recent months has spent millions of dollars helping former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and — after Gingrich dropped out of the presidential race — GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Adelson’s donation to Independence Virginia is the second largest in recent Virginia history, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a non-partisan tracker of state politics.
The record? A $2 million donation from Mark R. Warner to his own gubernatorial campaign in 2001.
Virginia’s high-stakes battle between Allen and Timothy M. Kaine, which remains neck-and-neck, has seen more outside spending than any other congressional race in the nation, according the Center for Responsive Politics.
More than $36 million has been dropped on the race by various groups, according to VPAP, with $20 million going toward attacks on Kaine and $12 million to attacking Allen.
The campaigns themselves have raised $26.5 million.
