Washington to vote proxies directly

Washington State Investment Board, Olympia, adopted a new policy and guidelines to directly vote proxies for the $17.8 billion domestic equity portfolio beginning in 2005, said spokesperson Liz Mendizabal. Proxies had been voted indirectly through Barclays Global Investors, which manages the fund's domestic equities, based on the Council of Institutional Investors corporate governance policies. Officials for the $57 billion fund recently contracted with Glass Lewis and the Investor Responsibility Research Center to assist in voting.