Washington, DC-In a show of the system's strength and popularity, all nine of New Jersey's winning legislature candidates in districts where the state's pilot Fair and Clean Elections system participated. The winners include Democrats and Republicans, representatives and senators, from all three districts where the program was available.

This is the second time candidates in certain districts have been able to use the Fair and Clean Elections program, which was updated last spring. Under the system, candidates are able to receive a public grant to run their campaigns after collecting a set amount of small contributions from district, foregoing all private fundraising, and adhering to strict spending limits.

"While the media and political pundits are focused on the 2008 campaign cash arms race, New Jersey highlights that there is an alternative," said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign. "In these three races, candidates were able to talk to voters about issues they cared about and not chase campaign checks."

Candidates running for office in the 14th, 24th, and 37th districts were eligible and sixteen candidates qualified to use the program. Assembly member Bill Baroni (R), who won his race for the Senate in the 14th district, said about the program, "If this program works, we can help eliminate special interests from the political process."

"With the success of the system in this cycle, the New Jersey legislature should be confident that this system can be expanded to cover all legislative races in the next election cycle particularly to primaries and to many more elections," said Nyhart. "It's a proven common sense program that puts voters ahead of campaign donors."

New Jersey is one of seven states and two cities with full public financing systems in place, including Maine, Arizona, and Connecticut. Last month, in the first test of the new Clean Elections program in Connecticut, both candidates for a special election participated in the system.

In 2006, over 200 Clean Elections officials took office free of the influence of special interest campaign money. In Maine 84 percent of the legislature used the system. In Arizona, 9 of 11 statewide officials ran under Clean Elections, including Gov. Janet Napolitano (D).

Public Campaign is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to sweeping reform that puts voters in control of our elections and dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics. For more information, go to www.publicampaign.org.