May 1, 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.
It seems to me that companies shouldn't be allowed to spend ANYTHING on campaign finance -- it smacks of corporate rule instead of We the People. Corporations are NOT people, my friends. If they get to spend, then they should be required by law to openly disclose where they are spending their campaign dollars and how much they are spending.
If this information is allowed to be kept private, it literally provides the ways and means for the powerful few to completely co-opt the voting process for elections by allowing large funds of undisclosed sums to be used to influence the way the vote is going to go.
We are supposed to be an informed populace when it comes to voting. The amount of money being spent to influence the voting process must also be something we are informed of during the campaigns.
Thank you for considering my comments.
Sincerely,
Christopher Dunn