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A Civics lesson. LOL
Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC Hauls in More Than $1 Million
(ABC News) – The Stephen Colbert super PAC is run by a comedian, but the political action committee’s bank account is no joke, based on federal reports filed today. Colbert created the super PAC, officially called Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow in June.
The super PAC is “rolling seven digits deep,” as Stephen Colbert,47, said in a statement to the Federal Election Commission today, having hauled in more than $1.02 million as of Jan. 30.
“We raised it on my show and used it to materially influence the elections – in full accordance with the law,” Comedy Central comedian Colbert said in a statement. “It’s the way our Founding Fathers would have wanted it, if they had founded corporations instead of just a country.”
In the last six months of 2011, Colbert’s PAC spent about $150,000. As of December 31, it had nearly $640,000 cash on hand, according to the FEC report.
The majority of the spending went to creating the super PAC’s web site, legal fees and media consulting fees. The PAC spent about $31,000 on “t-shirt manufacturing” and about $3,000 on “advertisements” as well.
While super PACs can, by law, accept unlimited donations, the largest amount Colbert’s PAC received from one donor was $19,200, which was given by Alex Rigopulos, the CEO of Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. A total of 339 people donated to the PAC from July through December.
In the weeks leading up to the South Carolina primary, Colbert transferred power of his super PAC to fellow comedian Jon Stewart in an on-air ceremony on “The Colbert Report” complete with a sci-fi-style money-power transfer and celebratory balloon drop.
Dear Super PAC Nation,
For those of you holding your breath for the past few weeks, you may exhale. For those of you who did not survive holding your breath: You did not die in vain. Because I, Stephen Colbert, have regained control of Colbert Super PAC.
Earlier tonight, I confronted Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, and chased him all the way to The Colbert Report, in the most action-packed TV crossover since that time Urkel guest-starred on Full House.
The way I see it, the Supreme Court said that money is speech, and Jon Stewart was hogging all my speech. Now I’ve taken that speech from Jon, making him like that movie “The Artist”: French.
…
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
