Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said today that he was giving up fundraising while doing work on the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the “supercommittee.” He told the Boston Globe he was going to stop fundraising, “because I don’t want people to think that I’m being leveraged by contributions. I just don’t want the appearance of money being associated with anything I do on this.”

This is a big victory for everyday people concerned about the influence that lobbyists and special interests will have on this committee. Sen. Kerry did the right thing today and as David Donnelly told Politico, “We’re very happy about Sen. Kerry’s decision, and we think it’s an easy thing for members of the congressional supercommittee to do. We hope the others follow suit.”

It’d be easy enough for all supercommittee members to give up fundraising. As Roll Call reported, “Public Campaign noted that the 12 lawmakers on the committee had $20.4 million in cash on hand and could easily take a break from fundraising for the duration of their service on the deficit team.”

Already, Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Max Baucus (D-Montana) have canceled events. The other members should do the same.

The Hill, USA Today, UPI, the Politico Influence newsletter, and ThinkProgress have all covered the story today too.