by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

All eyes will be on Claremont April 28 when Pomona College hosts a new kind of event from its newly reinvigorated Bridges Auditorium, a California gubernatorial debate that CBS News will stream and broadcast live.

The 90-minute debate with candidates from both major parties is the brainchild of Pomona College politics professor Sara Sadhwani and CBS LA news producer Rick Brown, who approached their respective employers about the idea several weeks ago.

Brown “and I talked and I said, ‘CBS doesn’t always do debates; is that something you’d ever be interested in?’” Sadhwani said. “He said, ‘I would love to, but I don’t know if the executives will support it.’ There’s a significant time commitment, financial commitment … to pulling this off, so it was a bit of a long shot. But it’s really exciting to see it come to fruition.”

The debate, one of several in the lead-up to the June 2 primary election, was always going to be a big deal — and a nice bit of publicity — for Claremont, Pomona College, and its gem, Bridges Auditorium. But with frontrunner Rep. Eric Swalwell dropping out of the race and resigning from the House this week amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, California’s governor’s race has suddenly become a major national story.

Pomona College Politics Professor Sara Sadhwani will be one of five moderators at the Tuesday, April 28 California gubernatorial debate at Bridges Auditorium, which will broadcast live starting at 5 p.m. on CBS-KCAL, channel 2. Photo/Courtesy of Pomona College

Sadhwani, 45, is ready for the spotlight.

She grew up in rural upstate New York, graduating from tiny Oakfield Alabama High School before moving on what she described as “the very big city” of Pittsburgh for her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Pittsburgh. Then it was on to Los Angeles and USC for her Ph.D.

“From a young age, I was always interested in activism and law, and I think over time that continued to develop and grow,” Sadhwani said. “I was very involved in student politics when I was an undergraduate myself, so yeah, I’ve always had the political bug.”

As a researcher she’s published a number of journal articles, and is currently working on a book about her service on the nonpartisan California Citizens Redistricting Commission, which helped redraw the state’s congressional boundaries following the passage of Proposition 50 in November 2025.

Sadhwani will join correspondents from four other CBS markets as moderators for the debate. It’s her first time in this role, but she’s been an on-camera commentator for CBS on elections and other political issues for some time.

“We’re really looking at creating various segments and thinking about the range of topics that are of greatest importance to California voters,” Sadhwani said. “I think what will be assigned is the segment topic, because there are five moderators. The plan is to break that into three different segments, each with its own topic area. But then from there we’ll develop our own questions. We are still in the process of thinking about the actual rules on the stage, how much time each candidate gets to speak, rebuttals, etc.”

Recent televised political debates — Trump v. Biden 2024 comes to mind — have, to put it mildly, gone off the rails. Will the moderators at Bridges control the mic-cutting button in case things veer into the ugly?

“Yes, we will,” Sadhwani said. “We are in the process of developing kind of the rules of engagement for the candidates, and you know, certainly we hope that we don’t have to use a cancelling of the mics, but I’m sure if it comes to it, we do want to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to have their voice heard.”

Hosting a political debate is also new for Director of Bridges Auditorium and Public Programming Matt Pavey.

“It is definitely a different world when you introduce the TV-film side to the event,” Pavey said. “We haven’t seen this really since Taylor Swift, I think that was the last televised event that was in here, and that was 2012.”

Manpower on the production side for a typical concert is about 10. For this, it’s closer to 40, “and then you layer in the Pomona College team, because they are in partnership with CBS on this, and … the communications and everything else, and it balloons,” Pavey said.

The debate is a joint venture between Pomona College, CBS, and the nonprofit Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs. Unfortunately for us wonky types, it is a closed event. A private ticket lottery already took place for the roughly 750 seats available.

As one would expect with the level of recent media scrutiny around the governor’s race and all the politicians who will be in the building, security will be heightened on April 28. Organizers limited the live audience at Bridges to about 750, blocking off some 1,490 seats apparently as security precaution.

“Well, typically we’re just working with security companies; you know, the yellow jackets that you see at every concert,” Pavey said. “But we’re going to see a larger police presence and private security presence, just because of the people that are going to be in the room at the time. It isn’t as stringent as the Secret Service vetting that we’ve done in the past for [Supreme Court Justice Sonia] Sotomayor and Gabby Giffords, where we had to go through backgrounds and the social security numbers come out. We haven’t had to go through that level here, and I’m assuming that’s just because Secret Service isn’t involved at this level. But I know that local law enforcement is definitely involved and aware.”

Sadhwani said moderating the discussion, “is an incredibly exciting moment for me personally. There are a lot of voters who continue to be undecided, and having an opportunity to broadcast these candidates to help inform voters about their options I think is a real wonderful opportunity for all of us involved.”

Who knows? Maybe Sadhwani has a future as a moderator.

“Not necessarily, but it’s exciting to play this role, and let’s see, you know,” she said. “I’m hoping everything goes well with this debate, and hopefully it’s the first of many for Pomona College.”

The 2026 California gubernatorial debate at Pomona College begins at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28. It will be broadcast live for television on CBS LA channel 2 in Los Angeles, streamed at cbsnews.com/losangeles/live, and by CBS affiliates in San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Fresno, and Santa Barbara.

Other upcoming California gubernatorial debates include 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 22 on KTLA5 Los Angeles and 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 5 on CNN.