NEW YORK, NY November 29, 2005 —The New Jersey Clean Elections Commission will hold hearings on why a pilot program to publicly finance Assembly races failed. WNYC 's Bob Hennelly has more.

Campaign finance reformers cheered when the "Clean Elections" pilot program was put into place last year. It meant that New Jersey might soon join Maine and Arizona as the only states to limit private donations and provide public money for elections.

Before the program could go statewide, authorities chose two assembly districts for a trial run. To qualify for public money candidiates had to show their viability by getting 1,000 people to give them just $5 dollars each and another 500 donors $30 a piece. But only a pair of Democrats in one of the districts could meet that criteria.

Campaign finance advocates say the program shouldn't be abandoned, but fine tuned and better publicized. They point to polls that show a majority of voters believe campaign contributors can influence the workings of the legislature.