Official: Firms should report political spending

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander is urging federal regulators to require that publicly traded companies report any political spending to their shareholders.

Kander, a Democrat, says investors want to know how money has been spent for political purposes by the companies in which they invest.

Kander's office says he wrote to the Securities and Exchange Commission to support a rulemaking petition submitted in 2011 by several law professors.