April 28, 2012
Dear members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
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.
If the rationale is that corporations have the right of free speech, and the right to contribute to political campaigns is a variation of that right, then I think it is only fair that these corporations declare who they are and what they are "saying" when they exercise that right. Politics is an inherently public exercise in speech, so anyone participating in such speech should be required to publicly disclose their identities.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Casebolt