May 2, 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 sources for political campaigns remain secret, it would be damaging to the U.S. democracy, because it gives a legal way for corruption. Furthermore, this will have effects worldwide as well, if we allow corruption so easily: How can the U.S. ever claim to fight against corruption compared to those countries, who have already a transparent approach and/or finance the political elections via the public?
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Johanna Purwin