April 28, 2012
Dear members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
Publicly traded corporations are just that: public. They need to be transparent and should be required to disclose their contributions to political campaigns and candidates. As a shareholder myself in many such corporations, I need to know what these companies are doing so that I, a private citizen, can determine whether the corporation reflects my own interests as well. This is as important as disclosing such facts as the names of directors and fund managers.
Therefore, I am writing to urge the SEC to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much the corporation spends on politics and which candidates are being promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC's web site.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Richard V. West