Colbert offering $500K to pay for SC GOP primary

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Comedian Stephen Colbert says he will pay half a million dollars to help fund South Carolina’s first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary.

The Palmetto State native wrote in an op-ed Thursday in The State newspaper in Columbia that his super PAC will bridge a gap left after state Republicans refused to give anything above candidates’ filing fees to run the election.

Earlier this month, Colbert offered Republicans $400,000 if they’d name the contest after him. The party said no, and Colbert says he started working with state Democrats to get an advisory referendum on the ballot.

The primary is expected to cost the state $1.5 million.

An Election Commission spokesman says the agency would need to ask state prosecutors if they can even legally accept the money.

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Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP