March 28, 2014
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 investors' money 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.
At the least, total transparency is a must if we are to have a semblance of a fairly functioning electoral process. Please do your part right away to assure the American people are informed about the amounts of money corporations are contributing to candidates, political parties, and any and all related political action committees, etc. now.
We're depending on your stewardship to help create that transparency as quickly as possible.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Claudia Ford