New Survey Reveals Strong Shareholder Support for Companies to Follow a Code of Conduct for Political Spending | CLS Blue Sky Blog

Companies can expect to be pressed hard to contribute given the stakes of the election at the state and national levels. [...] A recently released survey, commissioned by the Zicklin Center for Governance and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Political Accountability and conducted by a leading non-partisan polling firm, set out to identify how retail shareholders expect companies to approach, govern and assess their political spending. [...] Here are the key findings of the survey: 87 percent of respondents said they believe publicly traded companies should be required to have a code of conduct for assessing and governing their political spending 83 percent replied they would have more confidence investing in corporations that have adopted reforms that provide for transparency and accountability in political spending 79 percent said t. [...] The Center for Political Accountability and the Zicklin Center have developed a Model Code of Conduct for Corporate Political Spending to help companies manage the risks associated with election-related spending. [...] Laufer, the Julian Aresty Professor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and co-director of the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Governance & Business Ethics; and Karl Sandstrom, a senior counsel with the law firm of Perkins Coie.