New Jersey Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D) says the success of the state's Clean Elections pilot program this year is a strong predictor of expansion in 2009. Roberts says this year's pilot program is "light years ahead" of the Clean Elections experiment in 2005.He's cautious about promising just how much the program could be expanded, but this year's participation rate meets earlier established benchmarks for taking the program statewide for Assembly races:Roberts neither committed to nor ruled out taking the program statewide by 2009, saying he wants to discuss that with other lawmakers after this election.Roberts said he is "open to the broadest possible expansion" of the clean elections program, but its cost might be a reason for taking an "incremental" approach rather than expanding it statewide by 2009. This year's pilot program has a budget of $7.7 million.Great news New Jersey!