Comic Colbert Using PAC to Encourage Iowa Vote, Sort Of...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Comedy Central comedian Stephen Colbert's Super PAC is running ads in Iowa this week urging voters to write in Texas Governor Rick Perry's name, but with a slight twist at Saturday's Ames Straw Poll.
"Out-of-state groups like Grow PAC and Jobs for Iowa PAC are flooding the Iowa airwaves, telling you to vote Rick Perry at the Ames Straw Poll. They think they can buy your vote with their unlimited super PAC money," says Colbert. "We want you to vote for Rick Perry too, but not their Rick Perry, our Rick Parry. On August 13th, write in Rick Parry. That's Parry with an A for America, with an A for Iowa."
Colbert says he purposely misspelled Perry's name because campaign finance laws prohibit Super PAC's from being affiliated with candidates.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The first ad has already aired in Des Moines and a second one is now available online. One Des Moines station has refused to air the ads because it was afraid they would confuse viewers.
Colbert, who portrays a conservative commentator on his show, "The Colbert Report," got approval from the Federal Election Commission in June to start his political action committee, "Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow."
The development of Super PAC's began after the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, which allows groups unaffiliated with a candidate to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Colbert has been continuously mocking the decision ever since. He solicits donations and runs donors' names along the bottom of the screen during his show.
Fox News Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron was the first to report that Perry would throw his hat into the presidential ring Saturday in South Carolina.