An attorney for California gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is threatening “legal remedies” if ABC and the University of Southern California do not include the former Los Angeles mayor in an upcoming debate, a move that comes amid criticisms that candidates of color were not invited to participate in the event later this month.

Six candidates were invited to participate in the March 24 debate, hosted by ABC7/KABC-TV and the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future: Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, as well as Democrats Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer and Eric Swalwell.

The crowded field of candidates vying to replace a term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom as California’s chief executive — particularly on the Democratic side, and particularly without anyone really emerging as a clear frontrunner — has been the major storyline in the governor’s race as the primary barrels closer. Earlier this month, California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks asked the candidates in his party without a “viable” path to winning to drop out of the race and avoid creating a situation — however low the odds — where two Republicans might advance to the general election while Democrats get locked out.

For the upcoming debate, candidates were scored based on their fundraising totals, days in the race and polling numbers.

It’s a weighted scoring, said Christian Grose, a political science professor at USC who came up with the system but had no other input in who made the debate stage or how many candidates could be included.

Polling percentage and fundraising were used to determine a candidate’s viability formula, according to the methodology. The polling percentage was determined by the most recent Public Policy Institute of California survey, and the fundraising component took the total amount raised divided by the number of days a candidate was in the race. Polling, though, was weighted more than fundraising because that “is a snapshot measure of actual voters’ opinions,” the methodology said.

And that formula for scoring candidates, Grose said, was done blindly — meaning it was put together without looking at actual figures and how candidates would score.

According to the formula, Steyer came in first, followed by Hilton, Swalwell, Porter, Mahan and Bianco.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was next, followed by Villaraigosa. They were followed by former state Controller Betty Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

But Villaraigosa’s attorney, in a letter sent to debate organizers Wednesday morning and first obtained by the Southern California News Group, maintained his client satisfied either outright or “under any good faith analysis” the criteria.

The letter said Villaraigosa was polling higher than Mahan, the San Jose mayor, and had also raised more than him, per fundraising numbers filed with the California secretary of state’s office.

Villaraigosa announced his candidacy in 2024, while Mahan only entered the race in January of this year, the letter noted.

“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 letter from attorney Eric George said.

“Failing our receipt of such a confirmation, we shall have no choice but to pursue Mayor Villaraigosa’s other legal remedies,” it said.

Mahan, too, said more candidates should be included in the debate.

“Just as I publicly rejected the efforts of insiders to push candidates out of this race before the filing deadline, I feel the same way when it comes to debates,” Mahan said. “We have a diverse pool of candidates, including several who have served our state with distinction.”

“To solve California’s challenges, we need to hear more voices and viewpoints, not fewer,” Mahan said.

Fonda Berosini, an ABC spokesperson, said neither KABC nor Univision (which is providing Spanish language coverage) was involved in selecting the candidates. Debate participants were invited based on the USC criteria, Berosini said in an email.

But Villaraigosa isn’t the only excluded Democratic candidate who has complained.

Becerra sent a letter to USC President Beong-Soo Kim last week, calling it “chilling and dangerous” for the college to “so willingly abandon basic fairness to engineer an exclusionary format for its March 24, 2026, gubernatorial debate.”

“You previously invited many of the candidates for governor, including me, to reserve March 24 to participate in your hosted forum,” Becerra said in the letter. “Now, you have chosen to exclude some of us based on a patently arbitrary, spontaneous qualification formula. To my knowledge, no one has ever employed that particular formula for something as consequential as a televised debate to help determine the next governor for the fourth largest economy in the world.”

“USC goes to great lengths to justify its exclusionary candidate formula,” Becerra continued. “But 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, including me.”

The February survey of likely California voters by the Public Policy Institute of California found Hilton polling at 15% and Bianco at 12%. On the Democratic side, Porter clocked in at 13% among likely voters, followed by Swalwell at 11% and Steyer at 10%.

Becerra and Villaraigosa had 5%, as did Yee. Thurmond was polling at 2%.

Mahan came in at 3%.

Notably, more debates are scheduled next month, one with at least a similar candidate lineup.

Nexstar Media Group is scheduled to host a debate on April 22 with Bianco, Hilton, Porter, Steyer and Swalwell all invited to participate. The candidates were chosen, a release said, based on whether they had earned at least 5% in its March statewide poll and “Nexstar’s other criteria for participation.”

CBS, too, has a debate planned on April 28. The announcement doesn’t include the candidates invited, but rather says, “Participants in the debate will be selected from the top candidates in recent polling.”

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