In January 2010, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that opened the floodgates for increased corporate influence in our elections. This decision, Citizens United v. FEC, rolled back long-standing restrictions on corporate spending in elections, allowing corporations, trade associations and non-profits to spend unlimited amounts of money directly on elections.
Over the past three years, Public Advocate de Blasio has used public actions and negotiations to persuade companies such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley to adopt policies against spending treasury dollars in elections. In August 2010, he also founded the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending (CAPS), the nation's first and only bi-partisan coalition of elected officials dedicated to curbing corporate influence in our elections. To learn more about CAPS, visit http://politicalspending.org.
In fall 2011, we took the fight to stop secret corporate spending in elections to the steps of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.). With a simple rule change, the S.E.C. can require all publicly-traded companies to disclose their election spending. In February 2012, we gained new momentum as SEC Commissioner Aguilar announced his support for these reforms. That’s 1 down, 2 more Commissioners to go to secure a majority vote for passage! Join the effort by completing the form on the right to send a letter directly to the S.E.C.
Fill in your information below to send a letter to the S.E.C. calling for full disclosure of corporate political spending.
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I support the petition before the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (File No. 4-637) requiring public companies to disclose to shareholders the use of corporate resources for political activities. I urge the SEC to immediately take action on this matter.
SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar has declared his support for these reforms, noting that this issue reflects a "core responsibility" of the SEC and should be addressed “swiftly”. I hope that the remaining Commissioners heed his advice.