February 9, 2012
Dear Securities and Exchange Comm.,
I am deeply concerned about the influence of corporate money on our electoral process.
In fact since I have decided to get into politics and pay more attention, for about 20 years now, it has been my #1 political concern. Russ Feingold is my hero partly because of his campaign finance law he wrote with McCain. I have joined organizations such as Common Cause and Public Citizen because they are the organizations that have been and continue to do the most about this. If we fix how we finance elections in this country, all other problems will disappear, as we will finally have a government by and for the people as the founders intended. Citizens United was a disaster and actually will be demonstrated to be illegal one day soon. But in the mean time I as a shareholder and a consumer have a right to know who is spending money to purchase our government. If this practice is so above board and wholesome why do we want to keep it secret? Please do the right thing for our nation and our future and enact rules that require discolsure of all campaign contributions via every and all vehicles like SuperPACS, etc. I expect that you have some skin in the future game too.
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.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Daniel Siehr