USC and ABC7 criticized for exclusion of all candidates of color in upcoming gubernatorial debate

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Former U.S.Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, one of the top Democrats running for California governor, on Friday blasted USC and the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles for hosting a debate that he argues purposely excludes all candidates of color.Becerra said and the other candidates were excluded from the televised debate unfairly, a decision that he said “smells of election rigging” in a hotly contested race less than three months before the June primary.“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,’” Becerra wrote in a public letter to USC President Beong-Soo 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 university said in a statement that it authorized a political expert to create the formula to determine who would be included in the debate.

California Despite a warning from the state Democratic Party chair that a crowded field could hand the governorship to a Republican, eight of nine major Democratic candidates filed their paperwork to run, betting they can build momentum before the June primary.“At the request of the Center for the Political Future, Dr.Christian Grose, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, independently established the methodology that determined eligibility for the debate,” according to a statement from the center.

“No one in the USC administration had any role in developing, reviewing or approving those criteria.”The center later said in a statement on Friday that it reiterated the criteria that determined which candidates were invited to participate in the debate, and that nothing had changed since the forum was first...