Charles Stile of New Jersey's Record drops in on a gathering at which Clara Nibot, a Republican candidate hoping to participate in the state's Clean Election pilot program, works the room for $10 qualifying contributions. It reveals the time and effort that go into being a Clean Elections candidate, and the reactions her requests for donation provoke are telling.As Nibot, a long-shot first time candidate, goes around asking senior citizens to contribute to her campaign she gets some raised eyebrows:Some voters are simply suspicious of having a stranger approach them for a no-strings-attached contribution. "They look at you sometimes like you are trying to rip them off,'' Nibot said and But Thelma Johnson, bused in from the Teaneck Senior Center, was impressed. "I've been voting in elections for 67 years and this is the first time someone came out of the blue and said they never ran for office before," she said. But, again, she was not certain whether she'd send Nibot the $10.Think of the point we've come to where a candidate soliciting regular voters for support is greeted with suspicion or utter disbelief. New Jersey's Clean Elections program has enjoyed a high participation rate this election cycle, and apparently induced those with an interest in public office, but without the means to run under a privately financed system, to run for election. With more participation and further education the sight of Nibot and her fellow candidates going person to person and table to table asking for support can transition from a novelty to a norm.