\n<\/p>\n
The University of Southern California nixed plans to host a gubernatorial debate after backlash over the exclusion of candidates of color.<\/p>\n
Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Image<\/p>\n
The University of Southern California canceled a gubernatorial debate on campus less than 24 hours before the event after receiving criticism for excluding candidates of color, the Los Angeles Times <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n The move came after Democratic lawmakers sent a letter on Monday demanding the debate, which was supposed to take place Tuesday, be open to \u201call leading candidates.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n The university used a methodology by political science professor Christian Grose based on candidates\u2019 polling and fundraising performance to determine who should participate. As a result, San Jos\u00e9 mayor Matt Mahan, a white candidate who only recently entered the race, was included while former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former state controller Betty Yee were not.<\/p>\n \u201cThe university\u2019s selection process\u2014built on a formula never before used for a debate of this scale, has delivered a result that is biased,\u201d read the letter from lawmakers, including leaders of the legislative Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, Latino, Native American, LGBTQ, Jewish and women\u2019s caucuses. \u201cIf USC does not do the right thing, we call on California voters to boycott this debate.\u201d<\/p>\n A statement from USC to the Times<\/em> said the controversy has been a \u201cdistraction from the issues that matter to voters.\u201d<\/p>\n USC and the debate\u2019s co-sponsor, KABC, \u201chave not been able to reach an agreement on expanding the number of candidates at tomorrow\u2019s debate,\u201d the statement from USC said. \u201cAs a result, USC has made the difficult decision to cancel tomorrow\u2019s debate and will look for other opportunities to educate voters on the candidates and issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Scholars from USC and elsewhere have defended Grose and his methodology. A group of about 50 professors and researchers from USC, Harvard, Stanford and other universities released a letter on Monday urging the university to \u201cpublicly and unequivocally affirm Professor Grose\u2019s integrity as a valued scholar.\u201d The letter described Grose\u2019s formula as having \u201cgrounding in peer-reviewed social science research.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll of us expect and welcome critical engagement from inside and outside the academy,\u201d the letter read. \u201cWhat Professor Grose has faced, however, is not substantive or methodological debate\u201d but \u201cattacks and insinuations\u201d including \u201ccompletely baseless allegations of election-rigging, inconsistency, bias, and data manipulation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The University of Southern California nixed plans to host a gubernatorial debate after backlash over the exclusion of candidates of color. Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Image The University of Southern California canceled a gubernatorial debate on campus less than 24 hours before the event after receiving criticism for excluding candidates of color,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[4395,2572,638,24011,5529],"class_list":{"0":"post-47483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-cancels","9":"tag-controversy","10":"tag-debate","11":"tag-gubernatorial","12":"tag-usc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}