As Republican and Democrat candidates slug it out in debates to be California’s next governor, candidates who fit into the independent category continue to be shut out.

In Tuesday night’s debate hosted by CBS News, the players on the stage included two Republicans and six Democrats—and zero independents.

Elaine Culotti, an independent candidate who has polled as high as 23% on Polymarket but now is under 1%, claims the media is at fault for her sagging popularity.

If candidates get included in media polling and do well, they get to share the debate stage. If they’re excluded from polls, tough luck.

“Every single poll is the same problem, which is a violation of equal time,” Culotti told The Daily Signal. “Equal time should require that all candidates and all parties get to be on the poll. Otherwise, the poll is the mechanism in which they choose the debate candidates.”

The Pomona College website notes the candidates in Tuesday night’s debate were decided based on having at least 1% support in both the Emerson College and LA Times/UC Berkeley polls. The selection process was run by Asian Pacific American Public Affairs, in partnership with CBS and Pomona College.

Culotti said she does not fault CBS News moderators. Rather, it’s the polling process that needs fixing, she said. 

“I don’t believe for one minute that any CBS News anchors knew that no party preference wasn’t actually polled in their own polling system. They didn’t conduct the polls, they don’t know,” she said.

The independent candidate added that it’s not just a CBS News issue, but one all debate organizers have due to their polling systems.

According to data from the Independent Voter Project, at least 30% of Californians do not fit into the categories of Democrat or Republican. Yet all the debates so far have included only the two major parties.

Culotti posted a video to her X account asking each major candidate if they thought she should have been on stage. Their answers were unanimous: “yes.”

“There are plenty of NPPs [no party preference] that should have been on this stage before the people that were,” Republican candidate Chad Bianco said in reply.

Democrat San Diego Mayor Matt Mahan, another candidate for governor, responded, “We should have it be as open and competitive as possible. If it’s truly a scientific poll and it asks people who you support, and any candidate comes above a certain threshold … I think they should be on the debate stage.”

Every other candidate Culotti interviewed agreed.

While CBS News did release a poll moments after the debate, it focused solely on issues primary voters said were most important to them.

CBS News did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Paul Mitchell, a longtime California political consultant, told The Daily Signal having independent candidates on the debate stage might not matter as much as Culotti thinks.

“Independent voters are not voters who vote for these independent candidates—they vote for Democrats and Republicans at the same rate as actual Democrat and Republican registered voters, or they don’t vote because they are less engaged,” he said. 

“Don’t think of a no party preference voter as being a part of a club that shares a voting pattern,” Mitchell added. 

Today, in a very important 6-3 decision at the Supreme Court [Full pdf Ruling Here] the high court ruled in Louisiana -vs Callais that congressional districts drawn by considering race are an unconstitutional gerrymander.  Race should not be a consideration in the drawing of district boundaries. Chief Justice John Roberts had previously described Louisiana’s 6th […]

The post Supreme Court Rules Racial District Gerrymandering Violates Constitution appeared first on The Last Refuge.

After years of the Southern Poverty Law Center demanding that charitable foundations blacklist conservative and Christian nonprofits, the shoe is finally on the other foot: Fidelity Charitable has denied contributions to the SPLC.

Fidelity hasn’t targeted the SPLC for ideological reasons in the same way the SPLC targets conservatives, however—America’s largest sponsor of donor-advised funds is merely following its own policies regarding nonprofits under criminal investigation.

As The New York Times first reported, Fidelity cut off grants to the SPLC from its customers, who have more than 350,000 donor-advised funds—charitable giving accounts that allow them to maximize tax savings while supporting eligible nonprofits.

“Fidelity Charitable is aware of an ongoing governmental investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the company wrote in an email to a donor, the Times reported. “Consistent with our grant-making standards and practices, the organization is not an eligible grant recipient during the ongoing investigation.”

Fidelity Charitable’s website states that “a grant recommendation might be declined” if the organization “is being investigated for alleged illegal activities or non-charitable activities, such as terrorism, money laundering, hate crimes, or fraud.”

Another banking behemoth, Vanguard Charitable, has a similar policy.

“Vanguard Charitable grants only to organizations that meet IRS eligibility requirements,” a spokesperson for the company told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday. “If we become aware an organization has been charged with a crime by state or federal authorities, we pause grantmaking while the matter is pending.”

Last week, a federal grand jury indicted the SPLC on wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy charges for sending money to members of the very white supremacist groups the center claims it exists to dismantle. The SPLC did not deny funding members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations, but insisted the funds were part of an informant program that it used to prevent violent attacks.

The indictment, however, suggests that the SPLC didn’t just pay these field agents—it actually supervised “racist postings” for an organizer of the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally.

The SPLC will have its day in court, but Fidelity’s policy is clear: Grants to nonprofits facing criminal charges may be rejected.

The SPLC’s History of Debanking

Conservatives may be forgiven for indulging in a little bit of schadenfreude at this news.

As I documented in my book “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC weaponized its history of suing KKK groups into bankruptcy to smear conservatives. It places mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits on a “hate map” with Klan chapters, claiming the map reveals the “infrastructure upholding white supremacy.” This “hate map” inspired a terrorist attack in 2012.

The SPLC doesn’t just release this list every year to its donors and the media, exaggerating “hate” in order to drum up relevance and scare donors into ponying up cash. It also encourages social media platforms and companies like Fidelity to blacklist the groups on the map.

The SPLC has partnered with the Council on American-Islamic Relations to publish “Hate-Free Philanthropy” reports that call on companies in the charitable sector to blacklist “anti-Muslim hate groups.” The Amalgamated Foundation, a project of the SEIU-owned Amalgamated Bank, launched the “Hate Is Not Charitable” campaign, urging donor-advised funds to blacklist the groups on the SPLC “hate map.” Amalgamated Bank has, thankfully, sunsetted the campaign and removed it from the website.

In 2023, the SPLC released a report on “extremist finance,” pressuring donor-advised funds operated by major banks to blacklist “hate groups” like Alliance Defending Freedom and “antigovernment extremist groups” like Moms for Liberty.

In 2017, Vanco Payments abruptly ceased providing payment processing services to the Ruth Institute. Vanco Payments noted that the Ruth Institute “has been flagged by Card Brands as being affiliated with a product/service that promotes hate, violence, harassment and/or abuse.” It did not specifically cite the SPLC, but the “hate” accusation likely traces back to the SPLC’s branding the institute an “anti-LGBTQ hate group.”

In 2022, PayPal froze the Moms for Liberty account, providing no explanation. Only after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, pressured the company did it restore the account and allow Moms for Liberty to access the $4,500 in that account.

Some companies, such as Eventbrite, make no secret of the fact that they use the SPLC “hate map” to blacklist organizations, refusing to do business with them.

In the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network sent an email to leadership at major banks, urging them to stop “bankrolling bigotry,” specifically citing the SPLC on “hate groups.”

SPLC in Fidelity’s Doghouse

It remains to be seen whether a jury will convict the SPLC on criminal charges, but the indictment has already cost the SPLC the ability to receive the very same donor-advised funds it seeks to block from funding others.

The move also marks a sea change for Fidelity. Just a few years ago, conservatives warned that Fidelity appeared to be using the SPLC “hate map” to blacklist conservative nonprofits. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sent a letter threatening legal action, and it seems the company reconsidered.

Now, SPLC is in Fidelity’s doghouse. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving subject.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that next week’s annual Victory Day parade will be conducted without tanks, missiles, or other heavy military equipment, due to the “current operational situation” in Ukraine.

The post Russia Scales Back Victory Day Parade, Fearing Ukrainian Drone Strikes appeared first on Breitbart.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris criticized the Supreme Court's ruling in which a race-based redistricting map in Louisiana was struck down, stating that the ruling "guts the Voting Rights Act."

The post Kamala Harris Slams Supreme Court Ruling Voiding Race-Based Gerrymandering: ‘Guts The Voting Rights Act’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Insurance company UnitedHealthcare fired one of its employees Tuesday after she posted a TikTok video saying she was upset an assassin failed to kill President Donald Trump during the White […]

The post UnitedHealthcare Fires Employee Who Said She Was Sad Trump Assassin Failed: 'Violence is Never Acceptable' appeared first on The Western Journal.

The flight crew of a United Airlines jet said that they hit a drone Wednesday on approach for a landing at San Diego International Airport. United Flight 1980, a Boeing […]

The post United Airlines Flight Reportedly Struck by a Drone at 3,000 Feet appeared first on The Western Journal.

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms congratulates Robert Cekada on his Senate confirmation as the new director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and for his quick signing of a package of proposed rule changes designed to reverse confusing regulations adopted during the Biden administration.

Cekada, a career law enforcement professional, brings plenty of experience to his new job, noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.

“We’re impressed with Mr. Cekada’s background and with his intentions to change the ATF, while reinforcing the Trump administration’s philosophy that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” Gottlieb said. “We are looking over the proposed rule changes and we are confident they will result in a noticeable change of direction for the agency.”

Among the proposals is a rule which would “clarify regulations that govern the interstate transportation of firearms by lawful owners. The proposed rule formally recognizes that common, reasonably necessary activities during travel – including overnight stops, vehicle maintenance, refueling, emergency stops, and medical treatments – are considered as a necessary part of “transport,” and are therefore covered under the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act’s interstate transport protections. The proposed rule also updates requirements for transporting ammunition and firearm accessories and clarifies requirements for securing firearms during transit.”

“Unlike the past director under the previous administration, Cekada is a gun owner and he understands the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb observed. “We’re delighted that he recognizes there is still work to be done.”

Cekada was confirmed Wednesday by a vote of 59-39, and an hour later, he was at a press briefing on the 34 proposed rule changes.

“It definitely appears Mr. Cekada has hit the ground running,” Gottlieb said.

Mayor Mamdani said before meeting King Charles III he wanted to advocate for India over a precious diamond from the British crown jewels.

The post King Charles III Meets Mayor Mamdani in New York at 9/11 Memorial appeared first on Breitbart.