EXCLUSIVE — A group of Republican state treasurers has launched a new foray into the battle against environmental, social, and governance, accusing the country’s largest proxy adviser of having policies out of step with the market and activist in nature.

The group of 15 state financial officers is targeting the benchmark policy of Institutional Shareholder Services, a massive proxy advisory firm that gives shareholders recommendations on how to vote on corporate issues. The Republican officers argued in a letter sent Thursday that ISS’s basic benchmark policy is skewed and that ISS advised votes for ESG priorities far in excess of the market.

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