Colbert drew attention to a request from the super PAC American Crossroads. | REUTERS Colbert gets love at FEC

Stephen Colbert got some love from the Federal Election Commission Thursday for bringing public attention to a wonky campaign finance issue.

By asking his supporters to weigh in on a request from the Karl Rove-backed super PAC American Crossroads to “fully coordinate” political ads with candidates without violating laws that prohibit coordination, the comedian helped generate more buzz around the issue than the FEC is used to seeing.


The panel received nearly 500 comments on the American Crossroads’ request. Typically the panel is “lucky” to get one or two on an advisory opinion, Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said.

“We can count on one hand the number of issues that have come before the commission that have generated more public interest and public comment and that is, of course in part, thanks to our friend Stephen Colbert, and I do thank him for shining a little light on this obscure corner of the federal government,” said Weintraub.

In comments filed to the FEC last month, Colbert wrote in jest that his super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, agrees that “fully coordinated” ads shouldn’t be counted as “coordinated communications.”

“For example, an ad in which the Kool Aid man decries our nation-wide childhood thirst problem would not necessarily be an ad for Kool Aid brand juice drink. That being said, would a tall glass of Kool-Aid solve that thirst problem? To quote one expert: ‘Oh, yeaaahhhh!’”

Not all commissioners spoke as warmly about the comedian.

“If Stephen Colbert decided to run this kind of ad in the context of his TV show, no one would say that’s a problem,” said Republican Commissioner Donald McGahn. “Even though Colbert is owned by Comedy Central, which is owned by MTV, which is owned by Viacom — that’s all corporate money, big corporate money — but that’s fine because that’s the media. But when Crossroads does it, well, wow … democracy is going to crumble, that just can’t be.”

The commission split 3-3 in a vote about whether to adopt a draft advisory opinion, leaving little certainty for independent groups about the legal issues surrounding featuring congressional candidates in political advertisements.