COLUMBIA, S.C. — Comedian Stephen Colbert is offering to pay half a million dollars to help subsidize South Carolina’s first-in- the-South GOP presidential primary, as state officials struggle to pay for it.
The Charleston native wrote in an op-ed Thursday in The State newspaper in Columbia that his Colbert Super PAC — a type of political action committee that allows him to raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions and individuals — would bridge the gap after state Republicans refused to contribute anything above $180,000 collected in candidates’ filing fees.
State Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said if the commission were presented with the money and decided to accept it, the commission would have to ask state Attorney General Alan Wilson to decide whether state law permits a PAC to fund a primary.
