The University of Southern California canceled a gubernatorial debate less than 24 hours before it was supposed to take place Tuesday after facing outrage over including only white candidates.
Concerns about the selection criteria “have created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters,” the university said in a brief statement provided Tuesday. U.S.C. and KABC, the Los Angeles television station that was broadcasting the debate, could not reach an agreement on how to allow more candidates, the university said.
“We are a minority-majority state, and the idea that the four candidates of color are not going to be on the stage to bring those perspectives, to really speak to those communities, is really not doing right by the voters,” Betty Yee, a former state controller and one of the candidates for governor, said last week.
The formula to determine debate participants was created by Christian Grose, a political science professor. He said in an interview that the formula had combined polling and fund-raising data and considered the length of time that a candidate had been in the race. He said he had based it on research showing that fund-raising intensity, considered over time and in relation to other candidates, is a central predictor of viability in a primary election.
Mr. Grose, who teaches at U.S.C. but was not involved in organizing the debate, said he had crafted the formula “without knowing who would benefit and who would not,” and then gave the scores to the organizers to decide whom to include.
Dozens of professors from across the country, in a letter they posted on Monday, defended Mr. Grose’s formula and called on the university to reject “all efforts to apply political pressure on its faculty and its overall academic mission.”
Posted by assasstits
10 Comments
SS: what is my party doing dawg
Performative outrage from Leftist? Shocking….
The jokes write themselves.
This is also why Californian democrat candidates have it so tough when going for the Oval Office. Don’t get me wrong, it’s well-intentioned, but at the end of the day, bending to these demands is stupid and makes the party look bad.
lol it’s so wild how the rest of the world has moved on, even democratic politicians and journalists and voters have moved on, but there’s this core group of Deep Bureaucrats in the party machinery, in universities, etc. that just continue to live in eternal 2020
Meme state shit
Until we understand that this is part of why Trump won in 2024, we’ll continue to languish
How dare anyone suggest the inclusion of token minorities.
First Democratic gubernatorial candidate to call this the R-slur gets my vote.
This is why we lost the election guys.
The California dems are so lucky that the republicans are even worst than them because JFC, this performative nonsense does not make the party look like its run by adults. This is the classic “death by a 1000 cuts” that the party needs to get over it.