While most eyes were fixed on Montana and South Dakota, and yesterday's inevitable Democratic primary resolution, a few people were watching a politically-themed corporate contest in Delaware that had an even more predictable result. At General Motors' Wilmington annual meeting, shareholders snuffed out a proxy measure that would have expanded the automaker's disclosure of political spending.
Preliminary results — with 82 percent of the vote counted — show that 14.3 percent of shareholders had voted for the proposal. It would have required GM (which opposed the measure, and said it was transparent enough already) to issue a political spending report to shareholders twice a year, account for all GM's political contributions, disclose who made the decisions about corporate contributions, and explain its internal policies. The preliminary vote opposing the measure was 78 percent, with 7 percent abstaining. The ratios shouldn't change much when all votes are tallied, GM spokeswoman Jennifer Gibson told CFO.com.
Proponents of transparency measures like Bruce Freed, of the Center for Political Accountability, still expect more companies to do what he calls the "right thing" and installing more political disclosure. By Freed's reckoning, most of the recent shareholder proposals on political disclosure — if opposed by management — got between 20 and 30 percent approval.
Perhaps GM holders, and management, too, had bigger concerns yesterday. Like staying solvent with moves such as closing four of its truck and SUV manufacturing plants. |
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