Turns out that Stephen Colbert’s “Super PAC” won’t be called “Colbert Super PAC” after all.
Instead, according to paperwork Colbert filed in person with the Federal Election Commission in person yesterday, the “Super PAC” will go by “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.”
A letter from Colbert’s lawyer Trevor Potter that the FEC posted says that Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow “intends to make unlimited independent expenditures.”
Colbert sent an email to supporters last night telling them that due to “a technicality called ‘the law’, your email addresses cannot yet be used for Colbert Super PAC, since Colbert Super PAC did not exist when you gave them to me. So, Nation, go to my new site, ColbertSuperPAC.com, and sign up again.”
He continued: “And while you’re there, why not donate to Colbert Super PAC? That way, you can ensure your voice is heard, if by ‘voice’ you mean ‘money’ and by ‘heard’ you mean ‘deposited.’ Because that’s what I mean. So click the big red button below and sign up now! Together, we’ll be ‘Making A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow’ today.”
Once supporters give their email to “Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow,” they get a follow-up email from Colbert addressing them as “{VALUE=FIRSTNAME} {VALUE=LASTNAME}” in which he writes he “wanted to take a moment to personally express my {VALUE=ADJECTIVE} thanks for signing up for Colbert Super PAC.”
“Of course, I cannot do this alone,” Colbert writes. “Actually, I probably could, but it would seem a little flashy. By signing up at Colbert Super PAC, you’ve shown you have just what it takes to make a difference - an email address and a willingness to receive lots of spam.”
The paperwork for Colbert’s political action committee was filed just after the FEC ruled that under a press exemption he could cover the activities of his “Super PAC” on his Comedy Central program and produce advertisements to air on the show without his parent company Viacom having to disclose the production costs as in-kind contributions. The paperwork indicates that the treasurer of the group is Sal Purpura, who according to an online bio serves as treasurer of Sen. John McCain’s Country First PAC and previously served on McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign.
Colbert’s email to supporters laid out his plans for the super PAC:
“In the coming months Colbert Super PAC will shape the political debate by forcing candidates to focus on issues that matter to you - probably by attaching those issues to something shiny and dangling near the candidates’ face,” Colbert writes.
Here is Colbert’s sketch on the establishment of his “super PAC” that aired on The Colbert Report last night:
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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