Was Frederick Too Cute?

As in too cute for his own good.  

As Adam B pointed out last week, the timing of his "announcement," scheduled for 12:01 a.m. on September 6th, had the convenient added bonus of letting him skip filing FEC campaign finance reports until Jan 31, 2007, after several of the GOP primaries.  

At 11:50 p.m. EST, on September 5, 2007, Fred's announcement was up and live.  "My friends I come to you today to tell you that I intend to run for president..."

Ten minutes early.  Maybe more.  

As of 8:52 p.m. Lahdee had an article up highlighting the New York Times story on his announcement.

As of 7:57 p.m., it was in the Politico.

And never mind the fact that he announced his intention to announce last week.

Skipping the FEC reports, if that was in fact his goal, required him not to officially announce until September 6th.  But it's still September 5th as I write this, and he's already announced.

(I'm racing against the clock to get this posted before 12 a.m., but if you want the details of why he had to wait until September 6th to avoid FEC reports, check out Adam B's diary.

Does it matter?  Is there an election lawyer out there reading this who can tell me why he can still "officially" start running on the 6th even though he announced on the 5th?  Or is this all too cute by half?

UPDATE:  I changed the headline to make it a question, as that amused me more.

Also, I wanted to get this published before 11:59 p.m. just to show that all this info was available on Sept. 5th, and that you didn't have to wait until the 6th to read it.  But although I suggest you read Adam B.'s diary from last week, I'd like to include the actual regulatory reason why he needed to wait until the 6th for his formal announcement:

It's an interesting date he's chosen -- one day after a big GOP debate in New Hampshire, so why, you might wonder, would he skip it?

Follow the math and the regulatory hopscotch:

From the date of the formal announcement, Thompson has 15 days to declare his candidacy officially with the Federal Election Commision.  Takes us to September 21, 2007.
From that date, Thompson has 10 more days for his official campaign committee to register with the FEC.  Takes us to October 1, 2007.
And what's so special about October 1?  It's the start of a new FEC reporting quarter.  
By delaying the filing of his organizational papers until books have closed on the third quarter of 2007, Thompson arguably will not have to file any disclosure reports with the FEC until January 31, 2008, after the Republican primaries/caucuses in WY, IA, NH, NV, FL and Lord knows who else at this point.

Thoughts?  Does it matter?  Will voters care?  Will the FEC even notice?