PayPal Co-Founder and Libertarian Heavyweight Donates $1.7M to Ron Paul PAC

Peter Thiel, business heavyweight, tech giant, PayPal co-founder, hedge fund manager, and avowed libertarian, has donated another $1.7 million to Endorse Liberty, a super PAC supporting Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).

“Thiel, a billionaire who runs the hedge fund Clarium Capital, has donated a total of $2.6 million...since it was founded on Dec. 20,” Politico’s Robin Bravender writes.

This makes Thiel the single biggest contributor to the super PAC, which, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, brought in $2.4 million in January and $1 million in late December.

“Other big donors to Endorse Liberty include Stephen Oskoui, founder of Smiley Media and co-founder of the super PAC, and Gunter Marksteiner, owner of a Florida broadcasting group,” Bravender writes. “Oskoui donated $125,000 in late January and provided $296,000 of in-kind media services. Marksteiner cut a check for $2,500 and donated $161,000 in in-kind air time on WHDT, the groups filings show. Luke Nosek, another PayPal co-founder, contributed $10,000.”

However, even with these generous and oftentimes impressive donations, Endorse Liberty still managed to spend more than it raised in January. A total of $2.9 million was spent by the PAC, most of it going towards advertisements: $2.5 million went towards online advertisements on Facebook, Google and other web sites and another $165,000 was spent on television commercials.

But considering the dedication and the seemingly endless financial resources of the PAC's biggest contributor, overspending on necessities such as internet advertisements and TV spots seems like a negligible offense.

Consider the following: Thiel's $2.6 million in total donations account for 76 percent of the super PAC's fundraising since it came online late last year, according to CNN Money.

Furthermore, his donations are just a fraction of his net worth. In addition to the libertarian’s enormous success with PayPal, which is now owned by eBay, Thiel has made a few other business investments that have contributed greatly to his personal worth.

"In 2004, the angel investor put up $500,000 for Facebook's first financing round. At $30 per share, his stake in the social-networking powerhouse is now worth $1.3 billion," CNN Money reports.

Translation: the $2.6 million Thiel gave to Endorse liberty is only 0.2 percent of his Facebook holdings -- and there's a lot more where that came from.

Therefore, as long as Thiel believes Rep. Paul is the best person to represent libertarianism, the Endorse Liberty PAC can probably take comfort in knowing that even though it overspent in January, it still has a generous billionaire angel investor in its corner.