By Daniel Trotta
CLEVELAND, July 15 (Reuters) - A handful of donors to theRepublican National Convention have withdrawn pledges andfund-raising has stalled during Donald Trump's polarizing bidfor the presidency, leading organizers to ask casino mogulSheldon Adelson for an urgent donation.
The Cleveland 2016 Host Committee said in a statement onFriday it had approached Adelson, a generous party benefactor,while also acknowledging its fund-raising has come to a virtualstandstill, leaving a $6 million shortfall.
"Negative publicity around our potential nominee resulted ina considerable number of pledges backing out from theircommitments," the Host Committee said in a letter it sent toAdelson, according to the political news website Politico, whichsaid it had obtained the letter.
The Host Committee on Friday confirmed such a letter wassent to Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, but it downgradedthe withdrawn pledges from "considerable" to "a handful." Itsaid the hastily sent original letter "mischaracterized" thestatus of some donations. Some companies identified in theletter as having backed out said on Friday they had never madesuch pledges.
"Unfortunately, this letter (to Adelson) was not reviewednor authorized by the Host Committee chairpersons, and itmischaracterized certain donations from individuals andcorporations," the statement said.
"Some of what were referred to as pledges were actuallyexpectations based on pledges made to previous conventions,while a handful had been withdrawn from the Host Committee for2016 Republican National Convention," it said.
The committee said it had apologized to the Adelsons' staff.
Host Committee officials on Friday declined to commentbeyond the official statement, leaving open the question ofwhich donors reneged. Donations will be disclosed after theconvention in U.S. Federal Election Commission filings.
The statement, from Host Committee Chief Executive DavidGilbert, also said the committee had raised $58.25 million todate, about $6 million short of its goal of $64 million to coverexpenses for the four-day convention that starts Monday inCleveland, where Trump is expected to receive the Republicanpresidential nomination.
A month ago, a committee spokeswoman said $57.5 million hadbeen raised.
The Politico report, citing the letter, said David Koch,like Adelson a wealthy donor to conservative causes, andCoca-Cola each withdrew a pledge of $1 million. Kochand Coke representatives told the Wall Street Journal they nevermade such pledges. Coke previously said it donated $75,000 lastyear.
Visa, cited in the letter as having backed out of a $100,000pledge, said in a statement it never made a pledge.
FedEx and BP were named in the letter aswithdrawing support but also told the Journal they had not madethe stated commitments.
Other marquee companies were also named but did not respondto Reuters queries after business hours on Friday.Representatives for the Adelsons could not immediately bereached for comment.
Last month activists disturbed by Trump's campaign and ledby the political arm of California-based advocacy group Color ofChange launched an effort to try to shame companies intodropping sponsorships.
It was unclear if that effort, which targeted more than 30companies, had an impact. (Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Additional reporting by DavidGreising; Editing by Andrew Hay)
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