Winding Down Freedom's Watch [1]
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton [2] on
Freedom's Watch [3], the conservative 501(c)(4) organization that was set up earlier this year to help Republicans win elections, "is closing [4] after just one cycle in business," reports Reid Wilson. "The group, which ran television, radio, phone and mail campaigns against dozens of Democrats this year, received most of its funding [5] from wealthy gaming mogul Sheldon Adelson [6], chairman of the Las Vegas Sands [7] Corp." Although Freedom's Watch originally said it would be spending as much as $200 million for ad campaigns, the reality was only about $30 million. The recession has hurt Adelson financially, cutting into tourism and gambling and sending Sands stock tumbling from $122.96 per share to just $2.89 [8], a loss of 95 percent of its value. Freedom's Watch originally claimed to offer a conservative answer to the liberal advocacy group MoveOn [9]. As one blogger pointed out, however, the "biggest difference" between the two groups is that Freedom's Watch "had a handful of mega-wealthy donors [10]," while MoveOn "has an email list and funding base of 4 million."