Colbert for President
Stephen Colbert explores throwing his hat in the presidential ring
Stephen Colbert teased the idea of entering the Republican primary in South Carolina on Thursday evening, after having signed over his super PAC to Jon Stewart.
He announced to viewers Thursday on The Colbert Report that he is forming “an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the president of the United States of South Carolina.”
Rumors of Colbert making such announcement spread after Wednesday's telecast where Colbert learned of the results of a recent Public Policy Polling survey. The results found that 5% of South Carolina voters would vote for Colbert, putting him behind Rick Perry by 2%, but beating out Jon Huntsman, who had only 4%.
However, the chances of Colbert making the ballot for the Republican primary in South Carolina are slim to none. CNN spoke with South Carolina Election Commission spokesperson, Chris Whitmire who said there “won’t even be a way for someone to do that because it’s not allowed under the law.”
CNN went on to explain that Colbert had missed the Nov. 1 filing deadline to get his name on the GOP primary ballot, with Whitemire adding that there would be no write-in space in neither the electronic or paper ballots in accordance with the law.
The only obstacle that was legally stopping Colbert from entering the presidential race was the fact that he owned a political action committee. The Colbert Super PAC, which receives its funding from viewers and fans all across the country, has been used to endorse Rick “Parry,” — that’s Parry with an A for America — as well as expose the absurd laws and regulations of PACs that candidates often find ways around.
Check out the Rick Parry ad below.
One PAC law that Colbert has repeatedly focused on is the fact that it is illegal for a PAC to coordinate with the candidate they’re endorsing.
Colbert having his own PAC, wouldn’t be able to run for president, but luckily for him, Jon Stewart willingly took over Colbert’s PAC and renamed it to “The Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC.” Colbert brought on his lawyer and former chairmen of the Federal Election Commission to make sure all of this would allow Colbert to run for president and it did.
Stewart recently released the following statement in regards to the change of ownership:
"I am excited to take the reins of this completely independent organization, and begin to air ads in South Carolina," said New President and Noncommunication Director Jon Stewart. "But I want to be clear: Stephen and I have in no way have worked out a series of morse-code blinks to convey information with each other on our respective shows."
Colbert is currently exploring a run for President of the United States of South Carolina. Because of this, he cannot be associated with any Super PACs, although he has asked Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow to forward any periodicals of an "adult nature." *
Whatever ends up happening, Colbert can rest easy knowing that he will be able to shed even more light on the hypocrisy and potential conflicts of interests that the laws of the PACs allow and furthermore, the flaws that the country’s election process has developed over the years.