Peter J. Henning, a professor of securities law at Wayne State University in Detroit, said executives of public companies are required to make financial disclosures available to all investors, not just a select few.
He recently bought a $2.2 million home in Kentfield, and his business and investment holdings made him the richest of the state's top elected officials in 2010, according to the most recent financial disclosures available from the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
Another advantage is that E.T.F.'s are fairly transparent, allowing investors to learn within days of changes in portfolios, far quicker than the quarterly or semiannual disclosures available to investors in mutual funds.
The government would have to make all campaign finance and lobbyist disclosures available online in an searchable electronic format.
"Frankly, the [previous] disclosures weren't of that much use," says Kelly Huston, a spokesman for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, one of the first state agencies to make those disclosures available for anyone on its website.
But the law also applies to a reported 300,000 executive branch employees, making their financial disclosures available online (something POGO has long recommended) and dictating that the top executive branch employees, Congress, and their staff report stock and other financial transactions within 30 days.
All told, gay rights groups and donors affiliated with them have given a total of at least $480,000 this year to Democratic Senate candidates and campaign funds controlled by Democrats, according to the most recent disclosure documents available.
As for the commission members' financial interests, Judge Silberman said he was unaware that the White House planned to keep the information confidential, and he pledged to make his own disclosure form available in the coming days.
