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A controversy in the California governor’s race is forcing Democrats to choose between two of their favorite things: racial pandering and social science research conducted by highly credentialed academics. For anyone who’s ever wondered what Democrats would do without experts and identity politics, it seems we are now headed toward at least a partial answer. Seema Mehta reports for the Los Angeles Times: The University of Southern California canceled its Tuesday gubernatorial debate after facing fiery criticism about excluding every gubernatorial candidate of color. Although the university defended the methodology used to determine who was invited to participate in the forum, they canceled the debate less than 24 hours before it was set to take place because of the mounting controversy… Political scientists, public policy
professors and researchers associated with USC, UCLA, Stanford, Harvard and several other universities across the nation issued a letter Monday defending Christian Grose, the USC political science professor who developed the methodology that determined which candidates were invited to participate in the debate. The academics argue that the methodology, largely based on polling but also on fundraising, is widely accepted in the field of political science as a test of candidate viability. The professors write:
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