April 28, 2012
Dear members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
It's all over the news, corporate-funded groups are actually writing legislating and then getting legislators they also support to introduce it. If these groups are going to have that much impact over the people who are supposed to represent ME and legislate for MY country, I should at least get to know who's behind it all. If I'm going to have to live under these laws, I want to know what their agenda is.
Really, I think it's the least I should expect in a supposed democracy.
So I'm asking you to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending.
As a shareholder in some of these companies, I deserve to know what they're spending my money on. In fact, I just sold stock in Johnson & Johnson after finding out they were a member of ALEC. As a voter, I need to know how much a corporation spends on politics and which candidates they're backing or attacking. If I don't know whose agenda I'm hearing, it's a lot harder to evaluate it before I vote. I'd like disclosures posted promptly on the SEC's web site so it's easy for me to look them up.
Please protect my democracy. I'm counting on you.
Sincerely,
Christine Finnie