After dropping significant hints earlier this week, Stephen Colbert made it official last night on The Colbert Report: He’s entering the Republican presidential primary in his home state of South Carolina. Or planning to. But first, he consulted his lawyer who informed Colbert he’d have to relinquish control of his Super PAC to enter the race. No problem. He summoned The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart. Soberly pledging not to coordinate the political spending of the super PAC on Colbert’s behalf, the Comedy Central channel-mates signed papers effecting transfer of control to Stewart. Now that he’s legal, Colbert announced that he’s forming “an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the president of the United States of South Carolina.” One technicality remains, however. He missed a November 1 filing deadline, and in South Carolina write-in candidates are not allowed in political party primaries or elections for president and vice president. He also tried to run as a Democrat in 2007 but  the party removed him from the ballot. Undaunted, he may not be a frontrunner in the polls, but as he pointed out Wednesday, he’s ahead of Jon Huntsman.