Candidates of color call out ‘bigoted’ ABC gubernatorial debate

The race to be California’s next governor includes a handful of candidates of color. None of them were invited to participate in an upcoming gubernatorial debate hosted by ABC7 and the University of Southern California (USC).

The debate is set to take place on March 24 and will be cosponsored by ABC7 Los Angeles and Univision, who will air the debate live in Spanish. The criteria to qualify for the debate was created by a USC professor, who used opinion polling and campaign fundraising to determine which candidates should participate in the debate. All six candidates who were chosen are White.

“My father used to tell me of the days when he would encounter signs posted outside establishments that read ‘No Dogs, Negroes or Mexicans Allowed,’” candidate and former Attorney General Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter to USC President Beong-Soon Kim. “USC’s actions may not seem so transparent. But, you have deliberately chosen to selectively filter the voters’ view of the field of gubernatorial candidates in what all observers characterize as a wide-open race.”

The criteria formula was developed by Christian Grose, professor of Political Science and International Relations at USC. Grose was tapped by the university’s Center for the Political Future, which is organizing the debate.

Grose’s formula took into account each candidate’s position in the most recent Public Policy Institute of California poll, as well as the total amount raised over the course of the campaign divided by the number of days since the candidate officially entered the race. This formula was “pre-established and objective based on political science,” Grose told CALÓ News in an email.

Becerra and other candidates have called out what seem like inconsistencies in the formula, since San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan was invited to participate in the debate despite not polling as high as some of the non-invited candidates. Mahan has received millions in campaign donations from Silicon Valley leaders since he entered the race.

Mahan’s inclusion in the debate shows “biased metrics which guarantee subjective outcomes,” Becerra wrote.

Individual polling and fundraising wasn’t looked at prior to determining the criteria formula, according to Grose, who maintains the formula was not skewed to favor any candidate.

“The numbers are the numbers, and I imagine that some lower-scoring candidates are disappointed but that is a result of the data … which come directly from their polling and fundraising data,” Grose said.

The candidates invited to the March 24 debate are Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, who are both Republicans, and Democrats Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter, billionaire Tom Steyer and Mahan.

Controversy surrounding the debate follows a separate, similar incident where the California Democratic Party’s top official called on low-polling candidates, who all happen to be people of color, to drop out of the race.

“Voters deserve to hear from every qualified candidate,” former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a social media video. “They deserve a fair and transparent debate process.”

Villaraigosa, who began teaching public policy at USC in 2013, also released a statement on the matter, writing, “this biased and bigoted action by USC to manipulate the data to exclude every qualified Black, Latino and API candidate in favor of a less qualified white candidate is shameful.”

Former State Controller Betty Yee told CALÓ News she is used to being underestimated as a woman of color.

“Now, a corporate media machine is blocking ALL Democrats of color from being heard, in the most diverse state in the nation — where communities of color are the majority,” Yee said in a prepared statement. “It’s unconscionable. It’s undemocratic. It’s simply un-American.”