February 18, 2013
I am writing to urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending – and to do so this year.
Shareholders are harmed by this spending because this is money that would most likely have gone to profits that would be apportioned among shareholders, instead of shoved into the pockets of greedy politicians whose congressional votes might later line the pockets of corporate officers but not the sharholders who would readily dump their shares of they knew that the corporation were going to shovel profits to dark star political fund raising entities who will secretely support positions that actually harm shareholders in their shareholder and personal capacities. And if these corporations are making these contributions, then I want to know who they are so I don't wind up buying their cars, their soft drinks,etc.
“Dark money” groups that accept contributions from corporations, but are not required to publicly identify their corporate donors, spent millions of dollars during the 2012 elections. It is a scandal that money from publicly traded corporations – which belongs to investors – can be secretly spent to distort our democracy.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission created the loophole that enables this secret spending, but the SEC has the authority to close it.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much corporations spend on politics and which candidates are being promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Bob Richardson
Austin, TX