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September 12, 2011

Senator John Kerry Does the Right Thing

By crewstaff

John KerryToday, the Boston Globe reported that Senator John Kerry (D-MA), a member of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, commonly referred to as the super committee, will not fundraise while the committee is meeting.

This is terrific news. Last month, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called on members of the super committee to cease all fundraising operations for the duration of their service on the committee.

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) has decided to do just that.

“I will not fund-raise; I will raise no money,” Sen. Kerry told the Globe. “I’m not raising any money while the committee is working.” He explained, “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.”

Kudos to Sen. Kerry for making such a responsible and commendable choice.

As Sen. Kerry recognized, Americans must have confidence that the solutions offered by the super committee represent the best interests of all Americans, not just the interests of those who make campaign contributions to committee members. We have already seen some special interest groups openly attempting to capitalize on access to super committee members.  Appearances are everything, so whether or not campaign contributions to committee members actually influence their actions, any decision that benefits big donors will be suspect.

CREW applauds Senator Kerry for making the right call. He is showing the kind of leadership Americans expect from their elected officials. Hopefully, the other super committee members will take note and quickly follow the senator’s lead.

 

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