July 25, 2013
Dear SEC,
We need transparency in the money trail of our political campaigns so that the citizens of this country may have the information they need to ensure that their voice and votes are heard and counted and to make corporations accountable for their spending actions. The American public cannot see in the dark and we need daylight shone into boardrooms to illuminate the political activities going on there.
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 – and to do so this year.
“Dark money” groups that accept contributions from corporations, but are not required to publicly identify their corporate donors, spent millions of dollars during the 2012 elections. It is a scandal that money from publicly traded corporations – which belongs to investors – can be secretly spent to distort our democracy.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission created the loophole that enables this secret spending, but the SEC has the authority to close it.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much corporations spend 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.
Susan Haga
Austin, TX