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The Report on Colbert: Denied

Thu., Nov. 1, 2007 6:17 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

If Stephen Colbert really aims to run for President, he's going to need a new party. Make that, parties—plural.

Colbert was denied a spot Thursday on the South Carolina Democratic Party's presidential primary ballot in his native state. And he was a no-show when it came to filing for a place on the Republican side there.

A Colbert spokeswoman did not return an email seeking comment.

The Colbert Report star, who announced his intent to seek the nation's highest elective office on Oct. 16, had said he wanted to run only in South Carolina. And for greater comedic effect, he'd also said he wanted to lose not once, but twice in the state, hence his overtures to both Democratic and GOP voters.

In the end, Colbert's campaign, which the candidate swore was real, only followed through on its efforts with the Democrats, paying the $2,500 filing fee to the state party by Thursday's deadline. According to the South Carolina Republican Party, Colbert did not produce its required $35,000 filing fee by its 5 p.m. (ET) close-out time. Colbert had earlier announced on his TV show that he wasn't going to cough up the five figures required to get on the GOP ballot, noting that he'd paid less "for my black-market liver."

But while Colbert took the necessary steps to be on the Democratic ballot, he didn't get the necessary votes. In South Carolina, the Democratic Party requires all would-be candidates to win the approval of an executive committee. (The state's Republican party requires no such extra step—pay the $35,000, and you're in.)

On Thursday, South Carolina Democratic leaders voted 13-3 against Colbert. Nine "ayes" would have gotten him on the ballot.

"The committee said he was not a viable candidate," said South Carolina Democratic Party executive director Joe Werner.

The main strike against Colbert, according to Werner, who was not on the voting committee, was that the Comedy Central star was only campaigning in one state, and thus mathematically was never, ever going to win the White House. (South Carolina boasts eight electoral votes; a candidate needs 270 to claim victory.)

So, maybe if Colbert, with his hit TV show, his campaign Website, his best-selling book, I Am America (And So Can You!), and his ever-growing army of Facebook fans, had been running for King of South Carolina...?

"We tried that once, and we started the Civil War," Werner said, being quick to add that he was not suggesting that Colbert would have started a civil war.

Colbert shouldn't take the South Carolina snub personally--he wasn't the only candidate denied Thursday by the Democrats. New York-based low-cost-housing developer Henry Hewes ("I'd never heard of him 'til today," Werner said) also failed to win approval from the party committee as Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Christopher Dodd, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich all did.

It was unknown what Colbert's future plans were—beyond continuing to parody Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on most weeknights. As a presidential candidate, Colbert was focused on South Carolina.

Last Sunday, in an appearance at the University of South Carolina, he pledged, per the campus newspaper the Daily Gamecock, to "crush the state of Georgia, and, for good measure, the state of Tennessee."