To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, KABC and the University of Southern California may find themselves really paying for who gets a chance at the microphone in their March 24 California gubernatorial debate.
Already catching flack from ex-federal Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for his omission from the bipartisan event, the Disney-owned station and the university now face possible “legal remedies” sought by former Los Angeles Mayor and now governor candidate Antonio Villaraigosa.
“I write on behalf of Antonio Villaraigosa to formally demand that ABC News and USC immediately rectify his exclusion from the upcoming California gubernatorial debate,” attorney Eric M. George wrote in a letter sent via email Tuesday to USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Dean James Bullock and ABC 7 News’ Julie Sone. “The very ‘Candidate Debate Criteria and Formula’ published by Professor Christian Grose, on which your selection criteria purport to be based, establish precisely why Mayor Villaraigosa must be included in the debate.”
“As the foregoing facts are all incontestable, we perceive no legitimate basis – and only impermissible pretext – for your decision to exclude Mayor Villaraigosa from the upcoming debate,” the Avenue of the Stars-based lawyer added of the standard that took fundraising, polling and time in the race into account to determine who is eligible to participate.
George requested that Villaraigosa be added to the debate by close of business Thursday, or, “Failing our receipt of such a confirmation, we shall have no choice but to pursue Mayor Villaraigosa’s other legal remedies.”
ABC declined comment on George’s correspondence or its implications for the debate, to be moderated by ABC7 Los Angeles’ Eyewitness News anchor Marc Brown and co-sponsored by ABC7 LA and Univision.
As of now, those in the race to replace the termed out Gavin Newsom to have qualified for the debate are Rep. Eric Swalwell, ex-Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, progressive and billionaire and onetime POTUS candidate Tom Steyer, Silicon Valley-backed San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan (who entered the race in January months after ex-VP Kamala Harris said she would not be seeking the Golden State’s top job), and GOP contenders ex-UK Prime Minister aide and Fox News talking head Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
In addition to two-term L.A. mayor Villaraigosa, fellow candidates ex-state Controller Betty Yee, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Biden cabinet member Becerra (California’s Attorney General from 2017-2021) were deemed to not meet the criteria required for the debate.
“At the request of the Center for the Political Future and ABC7, Dr. Christian Grose, USC Professor of Political Science and International Relations, independently established the data-driven methodology that determined eligibility for the debate,” a USC spokesperson said Wednesday. “No one in the USC administration had any role in developing, reviewing or approving those criteria.”
“So, all data used were publicly available,” Grouse told Deadline today. “Then the scores have to be normed by how frequent, or how long, the candidates are in the campaign,” Grouse said, noting that he himself had nothing to do with the names chosen for the debate. “Then also by the total raised. Actually. that part is really important, that no one’s talking about, because it has to be on the same scale as the polling results for the formula to go between zero and 100.”
In a fragmented Democratic race that lacks a frontrunner as the June 2 primary nears, and with Republicans smelling a potential rare Left Coast race landing at their feet, all of the excluded contenders are individuals of color and all have participated in debates over the past year.
(L-R) Former Congressmember Katie Porter, former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Bacerra, former State Controller Betty Yee and California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond on stage at the NUHW Governor Candidate Forum on September 28, 2025 in Los Angeles
In California, and with things wide-open among Dems, the primary is structured so its two-candidate run-off could result in the two Republicans being left in the end heading towards November. To prevent that, after months of masked ICE immigration raids and abductions, the state’s Democrats are relying even more than usual on their base of Latinos and Black Americans to come out at the polls.
Becerra, who is of Mexican heritage, put a spotlight the “chilling and dangerous” lack of diversity in letters of his own he sent this week to USC president Beong-Soo Kim, KABC president Wendy Granato and Univision LA boss Jesus Chavez. Becerra called the debate criteria “weighted in favor of wealthy candidates” and reeking of “election rigging” with “selectively bootstraps” for Mahan.
“You can’t escape the detestable outcome: you disqualified all of the candidates of color from participating while you invited a white candidate who has NEVER polled higher than some of the candidates of color,” Becerra’s March 17 letters said.
Taking a more blunt approach than his lawyer did, Villaraigosa went online Tuesday to challenge not being in the debate.
In a post that looks a lot like Century City in the background, the former mayor and State Assembly Speaker said “the criteria used for the upcoming USC/ABC debate is flawed.”
“It initially was a criteria that said whoever polls the highest or is and has raised the most money should be on that stage. I and other candidates of color scored higher than one of the white candidates who got to go on stage,” said the two-time gubernatorial candidate (he ran in 2018, losing to Newsom in the primary).
Villaraigosa added: “They manipulated the criteria and said, Oh, it’s not just who pulled higher and who raised more money, it’s also how fast they did it. Look folks, we need every qualified candidate on that stage. And so it’s clear they need to retract this decision. They need to allow all of us who qualify under the original criteria to be on this stage. It’s as simple as that.”
In George’s letter, he has his client at 5%, ahead of Mahan’s 3% based, on a February poll.
On average, recent polls have the media-savvy Swalwell (who announced his candidacy in November on Jimmy Kimmel Live!) up front with about 17% support, followed closely by Hilton at around 14% and Steyer and Bianco tied at about 11%.
Then again, a University of California Berkeley poll earlier this month had Hilton in the lead at 19%, with Swalwell back more than 5 points with most of the pack. Falling since some public media mistakes caught on camera last year, once rising star Porter is now hovering at 10% in every poll.
That UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, has Becerra at 5%, Villaraigosa and Mahan at 4%, and Yee and Thurmond at 1%.
In a deft move of his own, the cable news-friendly Mahan put out a statement Monday proclaiming “Xavier Becerra, Betty Yee, Antonio Villaraigosa and Tony Thurmond have all served our state with distinction and they have all earned a place at the USC debate and on every debate stage.”
He added: “To solve California’s challenges we need to hear more voices and viewpoints, not fewer.”
In a warning to all candidates, and telling of voter engagement these days in an unstable nation and world, undecideds make up the largest or second largest block of likely California voters, according to polls.