Colbert PAC Bucks Go to Campaign Finance Reform Groups

Money was raised for series of ads mocking other ads

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/14/2012 1:59:33 PM

With tongue partly in cheek, but with real gratitude, the Campaign Legal Center Friday reacted publicly to the news that Stephen Colbert was donating $135,000 from the Ham Rove Memorial Fund  he created with funds left over from his mock (yet real) Super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.

Colbert gave a similar sum to the Center for Responsive Politics, according to the Center. Both groups are nonprofits working for greater transparency in campaign financing. 

"We vow to do our best to ensure that groups like Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow will not be able to get away with their anonymous shell game shenanigans in future election cycles," said Trevor Potter, president of the Legal Center.

Potter served as Colbert's legal counsel on setting up the PAC, which he used to satirize the new wave of funding made possible by the Citizen's United Supreme Court decision allowing corporations and unions to fund campaign ads advocating or opposing the election of particular candidates. That included producing ads for his own PAC.

The center is renaming its conference room the Ham Rove Memorial Conference Room, per Colbert's wishes. The Center for Responsive Politics will now boast the Colbert Super Pac Memorial Conference Room, also per Colbert's stipulation. "The room needed a little personality," said the Center on its website.

"Of course, what the super PAC did most effectively was raise public awareness about the complexities, and sometimes absurdities, of the post-Citizens United world of campaign finance," said the center.

Colbert announced the grants on his show Thursday night.