FOREX NEW YORK COMPANIES

By Snejana Farberov

PUBLISHED: 16:25 EST, 15 June 2012 | UPDATED: 17:15 EST, 15 June 2012

In a new campaign finance world order populated by wealthy men in their golden years like Republican casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Democratic Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, John Ramsey undoubtedly stands out.

Ramsey turned 21 only in January, but already the young millionaire from Texas has been throwing his weight - and wealth - around in the political arena. 

The senior at little-known Stephen F. Austin University is the founder of a team of college-age Republicans – dubbed by liberals the ‘Brat PAC’ - that helped propel one congressional candidate to victory and intends to get involved in other congressional races.

Ramsey is just the latest wealthy individual to try to influence federal elections in the wake of a series of federal court decisions that deregulated the campaign finance system and dramatically changed the country's political landscape.

It's not just his age that sets him apart. There's his source of means: He turned his inheritance totaling nearly $1million into the Liberty For All Political Action Committee (PAC).

He is also part of an army of young supporters of Senator Ron Paul who have turned their attention to federal, state and local races after their libertarian-leaning hero's presidential hopes were dashed once again.

He uses the words ‘grandfather’ and ‘role model’ to describe his relationship with Paul, a 76-year-old House member who has spent the past 22 years in the Senate – longer than Ramsey has been alive. Ramsey met Paul in 2010, and they are pictured together on Ramsey’s Facebook page.

‘I could very easily, having that great fortune, be spending it on frivolous things - big expensive cars or jets. But, you know, I'm really interested in making this world a better place,' says Ramsey. ‘To be able to put your own personal wealth behind a humanitarian cause, it's really very refreshing for me.’

In Ramsey's view, libertarian politics is humanitarian because it will produce a fiscally healthy United States and citizens who can afford to provide charity to poorer countries where people are starving.

That is why his group backs candidates who endorse what Ramsey calls ‘freedom philosophy’ - supporting free-market economics, protecting civil liberties, decreasing government spending and military isolationism.

He wouldn't have been able to choose this path if not for a series of federal court cases, including the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial Citizen United ruling in 2010 that stripped away the old restrictions on campaign spending.

Those changes have green-lighted wealthy individuals and corporations to open their wallets freely this election, but they have also opened the floodgate for grassroots organizations like Ramsey's to raise unlimited sums of cash.

As an economics and finance major, the lanky 6-foot-7 Texan is passionate in his belief that an overreaching government hinders rather than helps.

He said his own philosophy mirrors that of Frederic Bastiat, a 19th century French legislator who decried government's intrusion on individual liberties, and that of Paul, the Texas congressman who gained a passionate following among young people by espousing similar principles.

It's that belief that drove Ramsey to found his group, which the liberal-leaning magazine Mother Jones nicknamed the ‘Brat PAC.’ The grassroots organization now has about 15 to 20 staffers.

Liberty For All's first order of business was supporting the primary campaign of a protege of Paul's son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, for the state’s open 4th Congressional District seat.

Ramsey's committee poured $561,000 into that race to help Thomas Massie, a 41-year-old engineer and businessman, defeat two well-established Republicans. One was state lawmaker Alecia Webb-Edgington, who had surged in polling after two influential politicians endorsed her.

The PAC’s 23-year-old executive director, Preston Bates, initially ran ads in support of Massie. Then he changed gears, releasing television and radio ads against Webb-Edgington and a third contender, Boone County Judge-Executive Gary Moore. The strategy helped propel Massie to a decisive victory on May 22.

Massie credited the PAC for helping him overcome political adversity but added, ‘In a fair race, I would have won this without the PAC.’

In winning the Republican nomination, he became the overwhelming favorite in the November general election over Democratic nominee Bill Adkins, a northern Kentucky attorney.

Bates said the Massie victory has given the fledgling PAC credibility and sparked hundreds of small contributions amounting to tens of thousands of dollars since the Kentucky primary.

The group will have to report the exact amount in its July financial disclosure to the Federal Election Commission. That report, Bates said, will show Ramsey as the largest donor with a $1.3million investment. Minus the $600,000 spent on the Massie race, the PAC will have to refill its coffers to have a continuing impact.

The group is now turning its attention to a Michigan congressional race this fall, backing freshman Representative Justin Amash's re-election. It plans to continue being involved in the Massie race, and perhaps ten others that will not be announced until later this month.

Ramsey is not without detractors. Adkins said he expects Kentucky voters to refuse to let a rich Texan, whom he called ‘a bomb thrower’ with ‘no clear agenda,’ tell them whom to elect to the U.S. Congress.

‘He got his money the old-fashioned way - he inherited it,’ Adkins said.

Republican Marcus Carey, another candidate who lost the primary to Massie, said people he has talked to since the primary seem angry that Ramsey 'in their words, `bought the election.'

‘I think it's wonderful that young people are involved in politics and that young people are finding principles that they believe in and are becoming engaged,’ Carey said. But he said Ramsey's actions may have had negative consequences.

According to BusinessWeek, Ramsey’s interest in economics and finance, as well as his wealth, come from his grandfather, Justin Robert Howard, whom the 21-year-old calls ‘Big Papa.’

Howard was a banker who died in 2010, leaving a fortune to his survivors, including Ramsey and his two older siblings.

Thanks to his grandfather’s useful lessons in finance, the 21-year-old now manages his own portfolio, which includes diverse interests in energy, real estate and timber – investments not linked to the dollar.

Ramsey, an avid tennis player and hunting and fishing enthusiast, said his sister, Vanessa, a lifelong Democrat, is skeptical about his involvement in campaign finance, although other family members have been supportive of his aspirations.

Ramsey’s interest in free-market ideas espoused by Paul deepened last summer during studies at Oxford University in England. 

After campaigning for Paul in Iowa and Maine during his unsuccessful presidential run, Ramsey said he became ‘tired of sitting on the sidelines’ and decided to form the PAC, becoming perhaps the youngest person to do so.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Liberty For All Super PAC became official on March 5.

Ramsey and his young PAC executive director have big plans. Their goal is to diversify their donor base and attract wealthy business people like Peter Thiel, a billionaire investor who provided Facebook Inc. with its first outside investment.

‘There’s no reason why, by the end of the summer, we can’t have $10million,’ Ramsey told BusinessWeek, although he declined to reveal how much of his own money he is willing to put up. 

‘How much does freedom cost?’ he said. ‘I’m willing to do what it takes, within my ability to promote and have a more free world.’