July 26, 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.
No matter what the Supreme Court may say, a corporation is not a person. Corporations have no business spending their shareholders money on things with which they may or may not agree.
“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.
I am a shareholder in a number of different companies. I vote in favour of every proposal to requrie those companies to disclose their donations. Most shareholders don't bother. The SEC is the last hope of protecting true capitalism rather than the crony capitalism we now endure.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Russell Willis
Pelham, NY