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.
The debate had become a flashpoint in the sprawling race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is barred by term limits from running again. Eight Democrats and two Republicans have been the most prominent contenders in a large field running in the June 2 primary.
Tuesday’s debate was scheduled to include six candidates — two Republicans and three Democrats who were polling at the top, as well as another Democrat, Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose. Mr. Mahan’s polling has been weak, but he has raised millions of dollars from Silicon Valley executives since he entered the race in late January.
It was the inclusion of Mr. Mahan — who, like the other five debate participants, is white — that led to blowback from the prominent candidates of color who were left out.
“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 four high-profile candidates not invited to the debate are experienced officials with longstanding relationships with California’s Democratic establishment, but they have consistently been polling in the single digits throughout the race.
They include Xavier Becerra, the former health and human services secretary under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles mayor, both of whom are Latino; Tony Thurmond, the California state schools chief, who is Black; and Ms. Yee, who is Asian American.
The excluded candidates held a news conference Friday calling on the six debate participants to withdraw, and they have expressed resentment for weeks that they felt increasing pressure from the Democratic establishment to drop out of the race as leaders try to consolidate the field.
Like the four candidates excluded from the debate, Mr. Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, is polling in the single digits, but he has support from elite Silicon Valley donors.
On Sunday, Mr. Mahan called on debate organizers to include all of the leading candidates, saying those who were excluded have “much to contribute to a vigorous debate about the future of California.”
Hours before the debate was canceled, Democratic state legislative leaders had written a letter on Monday demanding that the university expand the debate to include all 10 leading candidates.
The cancellation was first reported late Monday by The Los Angeles Times.
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.”
Laurel Rosenhall is a Sacramento-based reporter covering California politics and government for The Times.
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