The New Jersey Assembly has passed legislation to extend the state's Clean Elections pilot program, with some modifications. While the effort to expand the pilot program is excellent, some consideration should be made about extending the Clean Elections program to cover primaries.  Particularly in districts which are overwhelming Democratic or Republican, primaries are where the real competition takes place, but many remain uncontested in part because of incumbent dominance in the fundraising chase. For Clean Elections to give otherwise disadvantaged candidates a chance to be competitive, it needs to apply to primary elections as well.  Now that the extension bill has passed the Assembly, it heads to the Senate which hasn't introduced a companion bill. It's good to see the state moving to keep the pilot project going!