WellPoint is focus of effort to force political spending disclosures

The WellPoint campaign demands the resignation of two WellPoint board members, including Susan Bayh, the wife of former senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), for allegedly failing to oversee "high risk political spending." The shareholder coalition cited WellPoint's reluctance to answer questions about a transfer of $86 million from the health insurers trade association to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2010, when the Chamber was actively opposing President Obama's healthcare overhaul. The coalition's effort to hold specific corporate board members responsible represents a new militancy in the fight to require companies to reveal their political activities.