February 2, 2013
Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
It's long past time to end secret political spending by corporations.
So I strongly support the SEC issuing a rule in the near future that would require publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their spending on political activities including campaign donations, political advertising, PAC donations, lobbying efforts under the broadest definition of lobbying, etc. This is vitally important as money can no longer be allowed to bend democracy toward its own ends in the dark shadow of anonymity.
Both shareholders and the public deserve to know how much a given corporation spends on politics (directly and through intermediaries), and which candidates are being promoted or attacked.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Roger Benson