Lucian Bebchuk is Professor of Law, Economics, and Finance at Harvard Law School. Robert J. Jackson, Jr. is Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Bebchuk and Jackson served as co-chairs of the Committee on Disclosure of Corporate Political Spending, which filed a rulemaking petition requesting that the SEC require all public companies to disclose their political spending.
Now put that fact together with this report from the LA Times:
Hillary Rodham Clinton knows her plan to stop big businesses from secretly funneling tranches of cash into politics may not fly with the Supreme Court and Congress, so she has a backup plan: publicly shame the companies.
Clinton is embracing one of the few effective tactics for loosening the grip on big money in politics. The plan she announced Tuesday to force publicly traded companies to disclose all political giving comes as a growing chorus of academics and activists are finding new ways to expose companies that hide their political maneuvering. ...
"This orchestrated 'disclosure' campaign by opponents of the business community is meant to intimidate corporations from participating in important policy debates, either directly or through trade associations and organizations such as the U.S. Chamber," chamber spokeswoman Blair Latoff Holmes said in an email.
Those joining the chamber in pushing back against the proposal say at the very least, it is not a matter that should be decided by financial regulators.
"Supporters of this say they want what is best for shareholders, but there is lots of information at firms that shareholders do not have access to," said David Primo, a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester in New York. "Shareholders cannot micromanage every decision a CEO or their team makes."
So one continues to wonder why Professors Bebchuk and Jackson are providing academic cover for HRC and the left's plan to defund the right?
Full Disclosure: I vote Republican. I contribute Republican. But I would think Bebchuk and Jackson's proposal is a horrible idea despite my political affiliations, because it runs directly counter to the director primacy model of corporate governance that I espouse. My political views just fuel that fire. (Admittedly, they make that fire quite hot!)
