The Independent View: Don’t Let Corporations Hide Their Political Spending

It will take a constitutional amendment to undo Citizens United entirely, but there’s one federal agency that has the power to rein in corporate money in politics in a big way right now.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can require that corporations disclose how they’re spending money to affect elections and the SEC is taking public comments on just such a move right now.

Campaign finance reform is the issue that affects all other issues: Climate change, civil rights, workers rights, health care, education … you name it.

The Supreme Court keeps giving already-powerful corporations new ways to influence politicians in all of these areas.

And we’ve seen the levels to which corporations were willing to go to win in 2010 and 2012, when they drowned the airwaves in attack ads.

But the SEC isn’t going to act without pressure.

The Daily Kos has created a petition asking the Securities and Exchange Commission:

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 on anti-progressive activity in secret. Corporations that we all invest in are fighting against clean air and water, LGBT rights, organized labor, financial protections for consumers, and more… and we don’t know anything about it.

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.

Thank you for considering my comment.

CLICK HERE to Sign and send the petition now.

Don’t let corporations hide their political spending.