January 18, 2012
I am deeply concerned about the influence of corporate money on our electoral process.
In particular, I am appalled that, because of the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, publicly traded corporations can spend investor's money on political activity in secret.
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.
While I can't claim to be an expert on either corporate tax law or corporate accounting, it would be a travesty if corporate political contributions and lobbying expenses could be treated as a business expense; they should n ot be anything except a diversion of profits. As such, stockholders have a right to know about them and to object to them.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much the corporation spends 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.
Richard Bagby
Las Cruces, NM