Senator Loretta Weinberg, Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson have qualified for public financing from New Jersey's Clean Elections program.

The Bergen Record reports:

The idea behind Clean Elections is to dislodge the big-money donors that give generously come campaign season, and later are awarded with no-bid government contracts, a practice known as pay-to-play. Good-government advocates say that pay-to-play costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year...Candidates who voluntarily agree to run under the Clean Elections banner must collect $10 donations from up to 800 registered voters, then swear off private funding and any kind of assistance from their county committees. They then are eligible for up to $526,375 each in state money to run their campaigns.

Weinberg, Johnson and Huttle all qualified by raising over 400 campaign contributions of $10 from District 37 voters. So far, the Clean Elections program has given $53,590 to Vainieri Huttle; $52,900 to Johnson; and $55,660 to Weinberg. However, in order to qualify for the maximum public financing, each candidate must collect a total of 800 contributions of $10.

Meanwhile, District 37's Republican candidates Wojciech J. Siemaszkiewicz, Clara S. Nibot and Frank J. Cifarelli have yet to qualify for the funding. The deadline for contributions is September 30.