Money politics has long dominated American politics, but the scale of the problem has gotten much worse since the Supreme Court made its infamous 2010 ruling popularly known as Citizens United. Eleanor Laise had this information in Market Watch about the increasing awareness among shareholders of money politics and how these shareholders and investors are calling for more transparency in corporate political spending. Here is an excerpt:

In more than a decade of pushing companies to disclose their political spending, the New York State Common Retirement Fund has never had a year like this.

The nearly $250 billion pension fund faced off in early May against Duke Energy Corp. DUK, +0.58%, whose board of directors opposed the New York fund’s proposal asking the company for more detailed disclosure of its direct and indirect political spending. Duke shareholders were tepid on the pension fund’s political-spending proposals in years past, voting them down in 2019 and 2020. This time, the proposal passed with 52% of the vote.  

That victory came on top of the pension fund’s successes earlier this year with companies like Molson Coors Beverage Co. TAP, +1.17% and FirstEnergy Corp. FE, +0.85%, whose agreements to more comprehensively disclose political spending resulted in the fund’s withdrawing its shareholder resolutions. If the fund can win majority shareholder support for its proposal at the cruise operator Royal Caribbean Group RCL, -2.17% early next month, it will have batted a thousand in its political-spending disclosure push this proxy season. 

Read the full article here. Also, visit the main Democracy Chronicles section on American Democracy, our section on Money Politics, or our articles on Political Lobbying.