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There’s nothing partisan about disclosure of political spending

a photo of Rick Claypool, online director for Public Citizen's Congress WatchThe corporate right wing is unleashing one of its more tired ploys in an attempt to smear our campaign to stop corporations from secretly distorting elections via front groups and shell companies.

The ploy is to label a policy proposal as “too partisan,” regardless of how much broad bipartisan support it has.

Then repeat.

And then repeat (ad nauseam).

In this case, we’re talking about a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule to require corporations to disclose their political spending, a reform supported by 77 percent of Americans across the political spectrum, and 91 percent of recently surveyed business leaders.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee, issued a missive calling on the SEC to ignore Public Citizen and the more than 600,000 people (many of whom are investors) who have called on the SEC to bring corporate dark money into the light.

The Issa missive specifically mentioned Public Citizen. Here are a few examples:

“… Public Citizen … is spearheading outside efforts to pressure the SEC to adopt a political disclosure rule.”

We can’t take all the credit, but thanks for noticing our hard work.

“… Public Citizen, a group with a history of calling for investigations of groups organized under section 501(c)(4) …”

Issa means 501(c)(4) groups like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS. Guilty as charged – with pride.

Public Citizen has a history of demanding that the IRS and the FEC investigate tax-exempt groups.”

To protect taxpayers by making sure our tax dollars don’t wind up subsidizing partisan corporate propaganda? Absolutely.

Issa’s intention seems to be to insinuate something unseemly about transparency about corporate political spending.

But the fact is that secret corporate spending is a tremendous problem for both the general public and for investors.

As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s reckless ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, corporations can keep their political spending secret simply by funneling their political dollars through trade groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and dark money outfits like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS.

Union members can look up filings with the Labor Department to find out how their labor organization is spending money in politics. Residents of areas being blasted with super PAC ads can conduct research to find out who is behind them.

Why should the likes of Walmart, Exxon Mobil, Bank of America and Monsanto be allowed to spend in secret?

We don’t think they should – and neither do most Americans.

The issue of transparency of corporate political spending is neither a partisan issue nor a special interest issue.

It is a public interest issue, and one we proudly support.

Want to be involved?

Join the more than 600,000 people who have called on the SEC to disclose corporate political spending.

Rick Claypool is online director for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. Follow him on Twitter at @RickClaypool.