Easier to say than to do! David Lopez, and Jonathan Povilonis of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, say. that companies should stay out of politics except when they decide it’s in their economic interest to do so. There are three general directions that public companies could head toward:First, corporate America could evolve to mirror…
Category: Citizens United
Republican Witnesses Nothing More Than Industry Mouthpieces: Accountable US
Accountable US has a new report with the unsurprising but still dispiriting news that the witnesses at the new Republican-led House Financial Services Committee hearing on ““Revamping and Revitalizing Banking in the 21st Century” are industry shills who paid to be there. The hearing is not about revamping or revitalizing, it is about protecting industry…
Comcast Is a Media Outlier After Contributing $360,000 to Election Deniers
According to campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets, Comcast’s political action committee was high on the list of financial supporters for politicians who openly questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election. In early 2021, Comcast said it would suspend donations “to those elected officials who voted against certification of the electoral college votes” and would review its…
The billionaires buying the midterm elections
Two primary super PACs seek to establish Republican majorities in the Senate and House — the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) and the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF). Those two groups, which can accept unlimited donations, collectively raised $188.3 million through March 2022. Nearly half of the money, $89.4 million, has come from just 27 billionaires, according…
The GOP Is the Party of Gruesome Oil Profiteering | The Nation
“Investor pressure to maintain capital discipline” is a nice way of referring to putting profits ahead of the public good. And that’s precisely what the oil companies are doing. “Big Oil executives are bragging to shareholders about price gouging families at the pump,” said [California Representative Katie] Porter. “They’re purposely keeping supply low to earn…
Accountable US to Eli Lilly: Stop Lying About Your Support for the Sedition Caucus
Kyle Herrig of Accountable US has written to Eli Lilly about their support for elected officials known as “the sedition caucus” for their efforts to overturn the Presidential election. “If Eli Lilly is content to donate to those in Congress who tried to overthrow the will of the people, or even those who seek to…
ALEC Is Driving Laws to Blacklist Companies That Boycott the Oil Industry | The Nation
As we have said many times before, corporate executives love to extol the purity of the free market until they do not like the outcome. And fossil fuel companies would rather spend the shareholders’ money promoting climate change denial and interfering with market assessments of the inevitability of their decline than actually transitioning to a…
Corporations Claim to Support Black History Month but Pay to Suppress Votes from BIPOC
From a new report by Accountable US: Major corporations that have publicly touted their celebration of Black History Month and previously promoted voting rights contributed at least $459,000 to lawmakers who blocked two pieces of federal voting rights legislation, the Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (JLVRAA), in 2021. The FTVA would restore voting rights to…
Corporations send large donations to GOP group behind abortion bans and voter suppression
Judd Legum’s Popular Information reports on the corporations that claim to support women’s rights and voting rights but make political contributions to elected officials opposing them. These companies include Google, Comcast/NBC/Universal, CVS, Citi, ATT, and Anhauser Busch. In 2021, Republican-controlled state legislatures imposed a bevy of radical policies on millions of Americans. This was especially…
Agenda – Investors Turning Up Heat on Political Spending
Companies heavily ramped up disclosures on political spending policies and oversight in 2021 as investors received massive support on shareholder proposals on the subject, according to an analysis of proxy voting trends. This year, boards should expect that pressure to rise even higher. With the midterm elections looming, boards need to ensure that directors have…
ValueEdge Advisors 