Corporations: political activities: shareholder disclosure.

Existing law, the General Corporation Law, provides for the regulation of corporations. Under existing law, the board of directors of a corporation is required, except as specified, to send an annual report to shareholders containing, among other things, a balance sheet as of the end of that fiscal year and an income statement and a statement of cashflows for that fiscal year. The Political Reform Act of 1974 provides for the regulation of political campaign financing, including the reporting and disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures. Under the act, elected officers, candidates for elective office, and campaign committees are required to file periodic campaign statements that disclose specified information for specified reporting periods, including the amount of contributions received and the identities of donors. This bill would require a corporation, as defined, that reasonably believes it has one or more shareholders located in this state and that makes a contribution or expenditure, as defined, to, or in support of or in opposition to, a candidate, ballot measure campaign, or a signature-gathering effort on behalf of a ballot measure, political party, or political action committee to issue a report on the political expenditures of the corporation in the previous fiscal year, and to notify shareholders not less than 24 hours prior to each political contribution during the fiscal year, by specified means, including posting the report and notification on the corporation's Internet Web site, if any. This bill would provide for a civil cause of action for damages by specified shareholders against a corporation for willful or reckless violations of the bill's provisions and would specify a prevailing shareholder's remedies. The bill would require a corporation to maintain records that include copies of the reports on its political activities for 5 years, and to make copies of these reports available to the Secretary of State upon request. The bill would also state findings and declarations of the Legislature.