canceled its debate<\/a> late Monday. On Tuesday morning, billionaire Tom Steyer \u2014 a Democrat \u2014 proposed holding an alternative face-off, with KNBC moderating. But the candidates who had not been invited to the USC debate had already made other commitments.<\/p>\n\u201cA lot of this came out of nowhere \u2014 there\u2019s a debate and you\u2019re not invited, followed by there\u2019s no debate, and then maybe we should all hang out and have a conversation,\u201d said Kyle Layman, a strategist advising former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.<\/p>\n
USC officials declined to comment on Tuesday\u2019s developments \u2014 as did KABC-TV, one of the broadcast partners of the canceled debate. KNBC did not respond to a request for comment, but someone involved with planning a potential debate there said pulling together such an event in just a few hours was impossible, and also unfair to the candidates who had made other plans after initially being excluded from the USC debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe looked into the possibility of doing something. It just wasn\u2019t possible because of the last-minute logistics. It was not feasible,\u201d said the person, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t get everybody here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that the candidates excluded from the USC debate couldn\u2019t find a way to participate in Tuesday evening\u2019s alternative forum irritated some people involved in the planning, however. Becerra, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former state Controller Betty Yee had loudly protested not being invited to the USC event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is like probably one of the last opportunities they have to be with other leading contenders of the race, so why not take this opportunity?\u201d said someone who took part in conversations about the proposed last-minute debate, who asked for anonymity to speak openly. \u201cIf the whole thing is about bringing your message to the voters, making sure voters have as much information as possible, talking about the issues that matter, wouldn\u2019t you want to take every opportunity to do that?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to talk a big game about taking your message to voters, the importance of debates, why not do it?\u201d this person said.<\/p>\n
Becerra, Thurmond, Villaraigosa and Yee have reportedly formed an informal pact not to participate in any debate that does not include all of them, which Yee referenced in a Tuesday afternoon news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that none of the candidates of color are going to be joining a debate is just inappropriate for a state like California,\u201d Yee said. \u201cWe also need to have a commitment from all of the debate sponsors that they will include all of us going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yee and Thurmond were not invited to the next major televised debate, which will take place April 1 at Fresno State University. Becerra and Villaraigosa had previously confirmed their attendance, according to a news release from the Western Growers Assn., one of the event\u2019s sponsors.<\/p>\n
And all four candidates of color, along with San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan, were not invited to a debate on April 22 in San Francisco that will be hosted by KRON-TV and broadcast on Nexstar Media Group stations throughout California.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need gatekeepers,\u201d Mahan said in a statement Tuesday evening. \u201cI\u2019m calling on my fellow candidates to work together to organize our own debates \u2014 so we can take our ideas for a better California to every corner of California. Let\u2019s let the voters truly decide.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scrapped USC debate was going to be hosted by the institution\u2019s Dornsife Center for the Political Future and co-sponsored by KABC and Univision. Six candidates had been invited to participate: Democrats Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, Mahan and Steyer; along with the leading Republicans, conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.<\/p>\n
Candidates and elected officials called the criteria used to determine participation in the debate biased because it included Mahan, a white candidate who is polling near the bottom of the pack but is supported by notable names in the USC community. Hours after the debate was canceled, Steyer\u2019s campaign sought to create an alternate event that would include all of the candidates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were trying to do the right thing upon learning that the debate was canceled at USC,\u201d said a member of Steyer\u2019s campaign who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. \u201cTom immediately was like, \u2018We can do something alternative.\u2019 People want to hear from the gubernatorial candidates. It was on the table. It was offered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNBC couldn\u2019t get all the candidates here, but we tried,\u201d this person said. \u201cGiven the short amount of time we were trying to put this together, it ultimately could not happen because not all the candidates could get to the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thurmond, who was in Sacramento and Richmond on Tuesday, joined a political influencer on YouTube Tuesday evening, while Yee attended previously scheduled events with the East Area Progressive Democrats and a women\u2019s group in the L.A. area. Villaraigosa had lined up other interviews at his Wilshire campaign office, Becerra was traveling, and Porter was scheduled to host a livestream on her Instagram account Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposed gubernatorial forum hastily cobbled together in the hours after USC canceled its Tuesday debate fell apart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1595,55,408,417,6856,5235,8,6858,1601,9,6857,1605,1609,7,6214,1611,1691,1613],"class_list":{"0":"post-9421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-becerra","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-candidate","11":"tag-color","12":"tag-debate","13":"tag-event","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-last-opportunity","16":"tag-mahan","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-person","19":"tag-steyer","20":"tag-thurmond","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-usc","23":"tag-villaraigosa","24":"tag-voter","25":"tag-yee"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116290242630892317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}