Citizens United: The Shareholders Strike Back

[annabanana]

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/citizens-united-home-depot-elections

The battle against the effects of the Supreme Court's game-changing Citizens United decision, the ruling that ripped down the wall between corporations and American elections, is gathering steam among an unlikely group: investors. With Congress unable to pass new legislation and the Obama administration so far unwilling to fix the dysfunctional Federal Election Commission, it's corporate shareholders who are increasingly on the front lines of the effort to foist accountability on the new Wild West of political spending.

On Thursday, the shareholders of Home Depot, the country's largest home-improvement store, will have their own chance to chip away at Citizens United when they vote on a strongly worded resolution urging the company to disclose all political campaign spending—past and projected, to candidates and third-party outfits—to elect or defeat candidates running for office. The resolution would give shareholders the chance to vote for or against Home Depot's campaign contributions and make the firm's top brass study whether the company's political spending would damage Home Depot's value and image. "The shareholders are the owners of the company," says Julie Goodridge, CEO of NorthStar Asset Management of Boston, a socially active investment firm that introduced the measure. "They need to be voting on these kinds of contributions." (A Home Depot spokesman referred Mother Jones to the company's response to NorthStar's resolution, which the company opposes, saying it already provides ample disclosure of its political spending and doesn't believe the resolution "would provide shareholders with any more meaningful information.")

more at link

I'll tell you.. If I was a shareholder, and corporate money was going to, say, the teabaggers I'd be livid!

[LiberalEsto]

1. Back in the 70s my friends bought shares of stock

in a particularly noxious corporation that was "redeveloping" our city to suit themselves.
Each person bought one share, so that a block of them could attend the annual stockholders' meeting and raise sticky questions. It scared the company honchos silly - they got wind of the plan and hired special security to monitor the activists during the meeting. Unfortunately the corporation had its way and continues to do awful things.

But it can be a good tactic if enough people do it.

[Scuba]

2. I believe Common Cause is taking on the Target Annual Mtg today in Pittsburg. n/t