Nearly all of the 30 largest mutual funds voted again to keep confidential political contributions made with corporate soft money, despite the push by shareholders for disclosure.
The Washington-based Center for Political Accountability, a watch group that monitors corporate political spending, reported that corporations are flouting shareholder requests to make its political spending public. The non-profit group drew up resolutions that would require monitoring the political spending of corporations, to which 27 of mutual fund companies refused to agree to.
“Once again, the mutual funds failed to put the interests of their shareholders first,” said Bruce Freed, the co-director of the Center for Political Accountability. “These resolutions would let shareholders know how companies are using their money politically and would hold management accountable for their company’s political spending.”
More than 22 percent of U.S. corporate stock is owned by mutual funds, the center reported. And the leading 30 mutual fund companies control about 20 percent of outstanding shares of the companies that faced political disclosure resolution in 2005.