BUZZ
Professor’s formula for candidate attendance widely supported, but school president canceled event after talks to include minority candidates fail
The University of Southern California ended up canceling a state gubernatorial debate after several excluded minority candidates blasted the criteria for attendance.
The decision to cancel came down from USC President Beong-Soo Kim “less than 24 hours before [the debate] was set to take place,” according to the Daily Trojan.
Xavier Becerra, Antonio Villaraigosa, Betty Yee, and Tony Thurman held a virtual press conference last week “urging other candidates to boycott” the debate due to the participation eligibility “algorithm” — which excluded all but the white candidates, NBC Los Angeles reports.
Fundraising and polling, weighted 35 and 65 percent, respectively, were key factors in USC Professor Christian Grose’s “data-driven candidate viability formula,” the Trojan reported.
Becerra and the others claimed Grose’s formula “rigged” the debate “to prioritize candidates [who] entered the race later.”
“We ask each and every candidate who is in this race to recognize that if we can’t have a fair process for a debate, then we should all not participate,” said Becerra, who is Hispanic.
Becerra also ripped USC in a March 14 “public letter” for not including “any Democratic candidates of color.”
Thurman, who is black, added that “California is the biggest and the most diverse state in the nation. To do something that has the effect of excluding the four candidates of color is really just criminal.”
President Kim said he had attempted to include the four candidates in “negotiations” with the local ABC affiliate, but the latter “was unwilling.”
Nevertheless, Kim said his decision to cancel “was not in any way influenced by […] demands or threats.”
Campus support for Professor Grouse appeared to be widespread. The Trojan Democrats stated on Instagram that Grouse did not “act in bad faith or sought to unfairly shape the debate field to favor or disfavor any candidate.”
The USC Open Dialogue Project criticized the debate cancellation saying it “believe[s] disagreement is best navigated through more dialogue — not less.”
USC Department of Political Science and International Relations Chair Morris Levy said the university needed to support Grouse as “powerful people [were] attacking his personal reputation.”
Over 50 USC and other university academics signed on to a letter Monday asking USC to “publicly and unequivocally affirm Professor Grose’s integrity as a valued scholar.”
When it cancelled the debate, the university had said it “vigorously defends the independence, objectivity, and integrity” of Prof. Grouse.
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