Citizens United on political spending?

As the U.S. continues to look polarized politically, a growing number of S&P 500 companies have made the effort to earn the highest scores from a watchdog organization that’s focused on transparency in corporate political spending.

That’s according to the latest study co-authored by that organization, the Center for Political Accountability in Washington, D.C., and the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

The study found a record number of S&P 500 components achieved scores of 90% in the CPA-Zicklin Index of Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability. There were 100 such companies, dubbed “Trendsetters,” up from 89 last year.

“The big jump this year from 89 to 100 reflects that companies see the political climate as hyper-polarized, as presenting real challenges,” said Bruce Freed, CPA’s president. “Having robust transparency and accountability scores helps them in terms of their public image, but it also helps them internally because now they’re putting in place policies that govern how they’ll engage in spending and how they will be able to manage the risk.”

It’s recognized that political spending today with corporate funds poses serious risks to companies, Freed said. The troubles can include boycotts by customers at either end of the political spectrum, protests by employees, allegations of corrupt spending and reputational damage.
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... the Center for Political Accountability’s recently released Guide to Corporate Political Spending. Written in collaboration with senior executives at companies that are among CPA-Zicklin Index Trendsetters, the Guide was requested by several leading companies to assist management in dealing with the challenges they face when making political spending decisions.
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The heart of the Guide is a pragmatic checklist for management to use in making and evaluating spending decisions. Here are the key elements:

• Recognize the heightened risks that a company faces from contributions to third-party groups, specifically 501(c)(4) organizations engaged in political spending, trade associations, super PACs and 527 committees. The company needs to know where its money ultimately ends up, what causes and candidates it advances and what risks it is assuming.
• Understand that public companies can no longer publicly claim to support some aspects of a candidate’s platform while disavowing others. The challenge facing a company is that when it supports a candidate, all of the candidate’s actions and positions will be associated with the company.
• Align the company’s political spending with its core values, policies and positions.
• Avoid siloed decision-making. Political spending should fairly reflect the views and interests of the company’s various stakeholders. Companies benefit from active and dynamic engagement among public affairs, government relations and other internal actors responsible for promoting the company’s values, policies and positions and those making political spending decisions.
• Direct corporate contributions to politicians who refrain from punitively targeting companies for their policy decisions, personnel practices, public statements, or other values important to company’s success and integrity.
• Protect the democratic institutions and rule of law that companies depend upon to operate, compete, and thrive.

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