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Steve Hilton, the leading candidate for governor despite his status as an unapologetic Republican in blue California, called it a perfect metaphor for the state’s spate of recent failures.

After the University of Southern California abruptly canceled its televised gubernatorial debate late Monday, less than 24 hours before it was set to take place, Democrats scrambled to come up with an alternative forum. Despite the frantic reaction, the crowded field of Democratic candidates couldn’t agree to the proposed ground rules.

The debate implosion and the subsequent failure to quickly reorganize played right into the leading GOP contender’s hands.

“This is just so symptomatic of everything that's wrong with California,” Hilton told RealClearPolitics on Tuesday in the aftermath of the debate’s cancellation. “Everything is broken, from the high-speed rail, where they haven't laid any tracks. Then last week we saw that $100 million butterfly bridge to nowhere. There’s been billions spent on homelessness with nothing to show for it, and the problem just gets worse.”

“Nothing works. Everything’s broken. It’s all a shambles,” Hilton asserted. “They can’t even organize a debate.”

The University of Southern California, which decades ago was considered a conservative alternative to public academic institutions across the state, more recently has become indistinguishable from them – at least when it comes to caving to cancel culture. On Monday evening, USC was ensnared by the same woke policies it has embraced.

All of the candidates the university had decided to invite to participate in Tuesday night’s planned debate, hosted by Univision and KABC, are white. All of the candidates left out are minorities who also happened to be polling in the single digits: California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa, and former California state Controller Betty Yee were not invited onto the USC stage after the university said they had not met their debate criteria.

Those invited included former Fox News host Steve Hilton, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter, businessman Tom Steyer and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.

“We recognize that concerns about the selection criteria for tomorrow’s gubernatorial debate have created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters,” the university said in a statement. “Unfortunately, USC and [debate co-sponsor] KABC have not been able to reach an agreement on expanding the number of candidates … As a result, USC has made the difficult decision to cancel tomorrow’s debate and will look for other opportunities to educate voters on the candidates and issues.”

On Tuesday, the university would not commit to a new date for the debate.

Hilton and Bianco have been leading the crowded pack of........

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