By:  Cydney Posner

Several articles recently most notably in the St. Petersburg Times and the L.A. Times suggest a growing movement toward increased transparency in corporate political contributions, prompted in large part by shareholder proponents of political disclosure resolutions. The articles report that these types of measures may be considered at more than 40 companies during their upcoming annual meetings, including Home Depot, General Dynamics, Boeing, Wyeth and Citigroup. One of the articles reports that Amgen ultimately recommended a vote in favor of a shareholder proposal for enhanced political contribution disclosure. Moreover, some companies have already taken action to enhance their political disclosure policies, including Staples, Bristol-Myers Squibb, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Eli Lilly. Most of the measures mandate board oversight of soft money political contributions and require companies to post on their corporate websites reports of their political contributions and their internal guidelines for making them. The St. Petersburg Times suggests that investors, such as labor unions, may seek to influence corporations that make political contributions "whose purpose is inimical to its members' broader goals, such as ... financial support [from Outback Steakhouse] last year to opponents of a minimum-wage proposal in Florida and an employer health-insurance mandate in California, much of it from corporate money…" or may simply use contribution disclosures to make more informed investment decisions.

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