(Image source: Wikimedia Commons) 

BY BRIAN BONDUS

ANCHOR NATHAN BYRNE

The GOP Presidential nominee race is racking up a hefty bill and the candidates are now focusing those funds on Florida. Newt Gingrich’s Super PAC has narrowed the spending gap with Mitt Romney’s since the Iowa caucus.

CNN reports, Gingrich’s Super PAC just got another big boost.

That backer is reportedly Mariam Adelson, the wife of the casino boss, Sheldon Adelson, who has contributed $5 million to the super PAC known as winning our future.

That brings the total donation by the third-richest man in America to $10 million. The Daily Beast calls Adelson pro-Israel, and is concerned all that cash has changed Gingrich’s policies.

“Compared to the views he expresses now, which are a full-blown echo of Adelson’s, the Gingrich of six years ago was a moderate, endorsing Obama-like policies he now condemns.”

A former top Clinton administration aide and now public policy professor from UC-Berkley is also concerned about Adelson’s influence on Gingrich. Robert Reich says Gingrich would be indebted to Adelson should he win the White House.

“The Adelsons and their kids will have the run of the White House, including the Oval Office... Never before in the history of American politics has a single couple given more money to a single candidate and had a bigger impact ….”

Not everyone is convinced this donation will make a difference in the upcoming Florida primary.
The New York Times notes how far $5 million goes in Florida.  

“Florida is the most expensive state the Republican candidates have competed in so far. $5 million, which was enough to saturate the airwaves in South Carolina for a week, is going to buy less commercial time to compete in what is going to be a cacophonous political advertising blitz...”

Romney has already spent $13 million on advertising in Florida. Gingrich is expected to increase his spending dramatically leading up to the January 31st primary.