February 9, 2012
Dear Securities and Exchange Comm.,
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 conceal expenditures of shareholder funds on politics.
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.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed about corporate political spending and which candidates it is being used to promote or attack. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.
It is wrong for heads of corporations to spend shareholders' money for political purposes without their explicit and individual consent. As it is now, shareholders' money is being spent, without their knowledge or consent, to sell political ideologies with which many of them may disagree. How can this be acceptable or even legal? A corporation is not a person because a corporation is comprised of lots of people and shareholders who do not think or speak as one individual. These people may or may not agree ideologically with the bosses who are nevertheless spending their money on political influence.
This is an abomination that is antithetical to our democratic principals, whatever side of the political spectrum one is on.
Please intervene.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Leslie Hicks