April 17, 2012
The flood of corporate money into the electoral process since the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United is very alarming.
Corporations currently can spend uncontrolled amounts of money and it can be concealed from the public and shareholders. Some curbs must be put in place.
As a first step corporations must be required to publicly disclose their spending on the political process, whether directly or via intermediary funding organizations.
This could be made very efficient for citizens, as well as shareholders, if the posting was to some central location, such as the SEC's web site. The postings should be current--at least within reason, such as within 30 days of making the expenditure. There can not be long lags before posting expenditures as this could make the information stale, and largely without remedy.
Gail Marsh
Durham, NC