Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, an early adopter of New Jersey's Clean Elections pilot program, writes about his mother's experience in civic and political leadership as an example of the sort of people we should see running for office, but whom the private financing system frequently excludes.Greenwald qualified to run as a Clean Elections candidates in New Jersey's first experiment with the program in 2005 and believes in the potential of the system to create a more diverse and competitive field of candidates. His mother, Maria Barnaby Greenwald, beat the odds to enter politics and work her way up totem pole:  My mother serves as an example that a girl who was born in Camden to Italian immigrants, helped teach her grandparents how to read and write English, and could not afford to go to college can serve the public just as well as someone with an Ivy League education and an overflowing bank account. I know many individuals who share a background and characteristics similar to my mother, and who would make excellent public servants. Unfortunately, the cost and financing system of political races often discourages the Maria Barnaby Greenwalds of today from running. Clean elections have the ability to open the closed door of politics to everyone, and greatly increase the ranks of ordinary people, women and minorities who might one day hold elected office. I support a statewide clean elections program, which hopefully is on the horizon for 2009, because it has the potential to make the New Jersey Legislature a body that more closely mirrors its population in sex, race and occupation.