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Friday, Jun 15, 2012 8:45 PM UTC

McCain: Foreign cash sneaking in via super PACs

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Topics: From the Wires,

McCain: Foreign cash sneaking in via super PACs(Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain said in an interview posted online Friday that “foreign money” was helping fellow Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential hopes and singled out one of his ally’s most generous supporters.

McCain, the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, suggested casino magnate Sheldon Adelson’s $10 million contribution to a pro-Romney super PAC was a conduit for Adelson to use profits from properties in Macau to shape American elections. McCain also criticized the Supreme Court ruling that allows individuals and corporations to make such unlimited donations to nominally independent political action committees.

“That is a great deal of money. And, again, we need a level playing field and we need to go back to the realization that Teddy Roosevelt had: that we have to have a limit on the flow of money and that corporations are not people,” McCain said.

The ding about corporations was a direct shot at Romney, who last year told a heckler at the Iowa State Fair that “corporations are people, my friend.” Romney’s critics seized on the comment as proof the wealthy candidate favored businesses over individuals.

McCain, a Romney rival in 2008 and now a top supporter, said the Supreme Court got it wrong in Citizens United, the court case that paved the way for super PACs. He called the decision “the most misguided, naive, uninformed, egregious decision of the United States Supreme Court, I think, in the 21st century.”

“I just wish one of them had run for county sheriff,” McCain said of the justices.

McCain is a longtime critic of money’s outsized role in politics and, despite his support of Romney, has remained steadfast in his support for tighter rules on campaign cash. That would include limits on donations such as the one Adelson and his wife, Miriam, made this week to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future PAC.

McCain said Adelson earns his money through a global casino empire, and “much of Mr. Adelson’s casino profits that go to him come from this casino in Macau.

“Obviously, maybe in a roundabout way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign,” McCain said.

Foreign citizens cannot make political contributions to U.S. campaigns.

Adelson is head of the Sands Corp., which owns three casinos in Macau. His company also runs Las Vegas’ Venetian complex. Forbes has estimated that he is worth $24.9 billion.

Adelson previously supported former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid with more than $20 million that kept Gingrich’s candidacy alive.

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