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53 Bush Donors and $55 Million in Contributions from Companies Opposed to the SEC Reform, Help Fuel Bush Election Efforts

The Bush administration, on behalf of some of its biggest financial backers, has worked to delay and debilitate a reform measure that would hold CEOs and corporate boards more accountable to their shareholders, according to a new report issued today by Public Citizen. On October 14, 2003, after a series of corporate scandals, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) formally introduced the so-called shareholder access rule, a modest reform measure that would make it easier for concerned investors to place their own nominees on a company's board of directors. More than a year later, the rule still hasn't been approved by the SEC. The proposed rule -- which received the largest number of comments in SEC history, most of them favorable -- was supported by institutional investors, state treasurers, unions, corporate governance experts and even SEC Chairman William Donaldson, who called it "long overdue." But the rule was vehemently opposed by the CEOs of America's largest corporations and their main trade associations, the Business Roundtable and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Fifty-three senior executives from corporations opposed to the rule qualified as "Rangers," "Pioneers" or "Super Rangers" -- the honorary titles given to big-money bundlers who have collected at least $200,000 or $100,000, respectively, for the Bush campaigns or $300,000 for the Republican National Committee (RNC). These rainmakers personally rounded up at least $8.3 million -- probably much more -- for Bush campaign efforts in 2000 and 2004. [more]