Ameritrade’s Ricketts Invites Wealthy to Koch-Style Group

Billionaire TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts built a $25 million political operation aimed at reducing the size of government.

Now his youngest son, Todd, is trying to expand that family business, Ending Spending, to include other wealthy donors.

Father and son are following the activist-investor method of political giving favored by billionaire energy executives Charles and David Koch, who created a network of Republican-leaning groups and convinced like-minded donors to help pay for them. The Ricketts have won one big-name donor: Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino owner who spent about $100 million in the 2012 presidential election, gave Ending Spending about $1 million in 2012, Federal Election Commission records show.

“Like a lot of conservatives, we’re really independent-minded, and that led us to want to have more of a say in how money is spent on particular candidates and campaigns and ad buys,” Todd Ricketts, 44, a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, said in an interview. “It has become clear to me that policy is made by the people who show up. We’re showing up.”

Full story: Bloomberg