Adelson gives $200,000 to DC-based group that has attacked Ross Miller

How active will Gondolier Numero Uno Sheldon Adelson be in state races this cycle?

The biggest question mark is in the attorney general's race, where Adam Laxalt, a total unknown until recently but the grandson of the former senator, has declared his candidacy against Ross Miller, the secretary of state believed to be a future gubernatorial contender. I have thought that some Republicans, including some close to Adelson, have adopted a Stop Miller Now attitude and will use DC groups such as the Republican State Leadership Committee to help keep Laxalt competitive against the anointed Miller.

Now comes word via Roll Call's Kent Cooper that Adelson's Las Vegas Sands recently gave $200,000 to the RSLC. Remember this is the same group that set up a website (seems dead now) last year to assail Miller.

But Adelson, as Cooper points out, has previously supported the RSLC, and the Sands chairman's top political aide told me today that the recent RSC money is not about Laxalt's campaign.

"There is no connection to Adam Laxalt," Andy Abboud told me. Indeed, Abboud made it clear that Laxalt and other supplicants will not get Adelson or corporate money unless they prove they have quality campaigns. And it's still too early to tell.

"We are making it clear to people that if they come for money from the Adelsons or the corporation that they have to be quality candidates, have a quality campaign, show boots on the ground," Abboud told me. "If that means there's less money this cycle, then there's less money."

Now as for what the RSLC does with its money....

UPDATE: Even though this doesn't preclude RSLC involvement, I am reminded of this.