February 2, 2013
Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
My uncle served on the SEC under Eisenhower. He would be appalled by the lack of transparency today.
Corporations' spending on political campaigns and the indebtedness politicians feel to them have been very destructive.
It's long past time to end secret political spending by corporations.
The SEC needs to issue a rule that would require publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their spending on political activities.
Both shareholders and the public deserve to know how much a given corporation spends on politics (directly and through intermediaries), and which candidates are being promoted or attacked.
Sincerely,
Grace Seiberling