Ron Paul supporter sends $130,000 of his own money

Reno businessman Mitch Lau so believes Texas Congressman Ron Paul is the right man to lead America that he has spent -- by his own account -- $130,000 to bolster the Republican's efforts to win the Nevada Caucus.

Not content to contribute the legal limit of $4,600 to Paul's presidential campaign, Lau has invested his personal wealth into building a one-man operation in Northern Nevada.

Since the summer, Lau has bought $11,000 worth of air time on local cable television, run full-page ads in the alternative weekly newspaper, paid for a network of billboards and made sure Paul had a presence on Northern Nevada radio stations.

"I feel like Ron Paul and his message is really our last hope for freedom," Lau said.

Campaign finance laws allow individuals to spend as much as they want in support of a candidate as long as their efforts are completely separate from the candidate's campaign.

But Federal Election Commission regulations do require individuals to publicly report their expenses once they spend more than $250 in an election year.

Grassroots support

Paul's anti-establishment, libertarian candidacy has attracted grassroots support from lots of people with different ideologies. The result is a network of fervent people who, like Lau, have made substantial personal investments in the campaign outside of normal volunteer channels.

Television commercials aired by Lau, for example, were produced by a 35-year-old video editor in Hancock, Wis., who started his own political action committee to help Paul.

Chris Rye said his ads have played in at least eight states across the country, largely through efforts of people unconnected with the Paul campaign who bought air time.

And with the New Hampshire primary now over, dozens of volunteers organized by a 29-year-old software engineer who quit his job to get Paul elected are expected to flood into Nevada for the Jan. 19 effort.

"I raised over $60,000 from 3,000 people, and that's the source of funding we've been using in New Hampshire," said Vijay Boyapati, who left his job with Google to build the organization. "We still have some money left over, and that's what we are going to use in Nevada."

First foray into politics

Lau is president of a Reno-based credit card processing business that handles millions of dollars of transactions for clients nationwide. But he said his true vocation is a stress management clinic for Iraqi war vets.

Lau said this is his first foray into federal campaign finance. He started by setting up a political nonprofit organization called Nevadans for America as a way to pool contributions for an independent campaign.

The nonprofit's name is listed on his billboards and television advertisements.

But he didn't want to deal with the FEC reporting requirements on PACs or political nonprofits, so he decided to spend only his own money, thinking that would free him from FEC rules.

He said he was surprised to learn the FEC also requires individuals who spend more than $10,000 in support or opposition of a candidate to publicly report their expenses within 48 hours.

Another quarterly report is required if expenses don't reach $10,000.

State fertile for donors

In the past, Nevada has attracted monied candidates who spend their fortunes on themselves and the state has long been a fertile ground for large-sum political donors.

But it's unusual for individuals to spend heavily on outside campaign activities, said Eric Herzik, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno and a Republican.

"Ron Paul is something of a phenomenon," he said. "The devotion is amazing."

But Herzik said they likely will end up disappointed in the end. While Paul has garnered devoted support, many of his views are still considered to be on the political fringe.

A devout Libertarian, Paul believes in ending the "welfare state," including Social Security, federally backed college loans and government spending on health care. He wants to end America's military deployments in Iraq and most other countries. And he wants to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve Board, returning America to the gold standard.

Most political observers give him little chance of succeeding.

"They are going to spend all this money, but they are going to be disillusioned," Herzik said. "This might sound cynical, but the system is bigger than one person."

Lau said his money won't be wasted, even if Paul doesn't win the nomination.

"If you look at it now, he's got an uphill battle because the powers that be are against him," Lau said. "But by putting his name out there, maybe people will start hearing his message. Even if he isn't elected, just the fact that people might wake up is worth it."

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