The Chautauquan Daily: Former FEC Chair Potter Opens ‘Money and Power’ Week

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Trevor Potter rode what may be the most improbable path to fame in recent history: late-night comedy by way of the Federal Election Commission. He’s probably the only practicing lawyer your grandson has ever heard of, and now he’s returning to Chautauqua Institution.

Potter, who served as chairman of the Federal Election Commission, entered the public eye in 2011 when Stephen Colbert started his own super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, to satirize the modern American campaign finance system. Potter appeared as the straight man to confirm that the Peabody Award-winning, million-dollar fundraising parody was fully legal. He will give a lecture at 10:45 a.m. July 4 in the Amphitheater titled “A Republic, If We Can Keep It,” a warning about the influence of money on democracy.

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