Two Las Vegas casino companies helped fund a political action committee running ads in support of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid while Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. gave an additional $250,000 to the Republican Governors Association, according to campaign-finance reports.
The Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service reports were filed Friday on contributions made between July and September.
Harrah's Entertainment Inc. contributed $75,000 and MGM Resorts International gave $50,000 to Patriot Majority PAC, one of the new "super PACs" that can take in unlimited donations for spending that's independent of candidates' campaigns, FEC reports show. Between Sept. 1 and Oct. 12, Patriot Majority PAC and a related group spent $1.1 million to help re-elect Reid, a Democrat who is in a tight race for his Nevada seat.
Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp., gave $1 million to the Republican governors group, which reported raising $31 million between July and September and $89 million since Jan. 1, 2009, according to the IRS. New York-based News Corp., which gave $1 million to the Republican group in June, contributed $250,000 in July.
The Democratic Governors Association raised $10 million, including $700,000 from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, during the last three months, and $50 million since Jan. 1, 2009, according to the IRS. There are 37 governors' races on the Nov. 2 ballot.
Republican-leaning groups spent about $73 million from Sept. 1 to Oct. 12, four times as much as Democratic-leaning organizations.