February 11, 2013
Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission
It is clear from recent history that unfair influence has been placed on the election process in this nation by corporations spending large, undisclosed sums of money on political advertising and campaign materials.
The time has come to limit this covert expenditure by corporations. The Supreme Court's catastrophic ruling in the "Citizens United versus FEC" case has set fair elections back many decades.
I strongly support a rule by the SEC that would require publicly traded corporations to disclose all their spending on political activities. Despite what the Supreme Court asserted, in this context, Corporations are NOT people and should not have the rights of people.
A corporation's shareholders as well as the public should have the right to know what a particular corporation spends on political ads and other materials, both directly and through hired agencies or funded organizations. That full disclosure should include attack ads against proposed legislation (propositions) as well as candidates for office.
Please implement a rule to require full disclosure of political spending by publicly traded corporations as soon as possible. This is a good start in restoring fairness to elections.
Sincerely,
Lori Paul, RVT