February 27, 2012
***Corporations must not be allowed to leverage their special legal privileges and powers into the political forum. Corporations are special legal fictions, chartered for specific purposes and with specific powers that no flesh and blood human enjoys. These entities have warped our democracy in ways that the shareholders may not desire, and do not have the hours in the day to monitor, We desperately need the SEC to require full disclosure of political spending. Only shareholder discipline and public shame can curtail this flood of corporate money, acquired through means completely unrelated to any political motivation on the "donor's" part (i.e. the customer), from drowning our public discourse.***
I am deeply concerned about the influence of corporate money on our electoral process.
In particular, I am appalled that, because of the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, publicly traded corporations can spend investor's money on political activity in secret.
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 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.
Jim Steitz