The FEC ruled today that Stephen Colbert can have his own Super PAC and fund it with unlimited contributions from basically whoever the hell he wants. He’s going to do a lot of funny things with this! What exactly, though, he’s not quite sure yet, or at least he’s not telling. “We don’t know what we’re going to do with the ads,” he said at a hearing today, “where we would place them, because we don’t have the PAC yet.”
But the implications of the FEC decision go beyond providing Colbert with a new platform with which to satirize the presidential campaign. We’ll let The Atlantic’s Chris Good, who knows a lot more about this than we do, explain:
With the FEC’s approval, Colbert will now:
* Take in unlimited donations from nearly any source, other than foreign nationals and government contractors
* Air TV and radio ads expressly telling viewers and listeners to vote for certain candidates – but his group cannot give money directly to those candidates
* Report contributions to the Federal Election Commission
* Report spending on campaign ads
But basically, it’s going to be funny.
Colbert’s ‘SuperPAC’ Pushes the Limits of Election Law [Atlantic]
