Kari Chisholm

In 2004, Chisholm, Jeff Alworth, and Jesse Cornett co-founded BlueOregon, a progressive blog that covered the politics of the U.S. state of Oregon.{{cite news |last=Davis|first=Matt |date=December 18, 2009 |title=Jesse Cornett Files For Saltzman's Seat |url=https://www.portlandmercury.com/news/2009/12/18/1990416/jesse-cornett-files-for-saltzmans-seat |work=Portland Mercury |access-date=February 25, 2023}} Chisholm was one of the site's three main editors and was described as the "den mother of the political blog" by the Willamette Week.{{cite news |last=Jaquiss |first=Nigel |date=April 22, 2008 |title=Blue Flames |url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-8866-blue-flames.html |work=Willamette Week |access-date=February 25, 2023}}{{cite web|title=Contributors |work=BlueOregon |url=https://www.blueoregon.com/authors/ |accessdate=February 25, 2023}} Chisholm stated that he and other tech-savvy activists wanted smaller regional political blogs like BlueOregon to play as a prominent a role at the state level as large blogs already did at the national level.{{cite web |last=Steves |first=David |title=Bloggers find new clout in state politics. |newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard |date=November 5, 2006 |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Bloggers+find+new+clout+in+state+politics.-a0154112061|accessdate=February 25, 2023 |via=The Free Library}}

By 2006 the site was the top-read Oregon political blog, with 3,000 to 4,000 readers a day around election season. An article in The Register-Guard stated that "[b]logs such as Chisholm's have been a place where Democratic activists have been able to find out where and how they can help their party's candidates. [...] And where those willing to get up from their computers can go to make phone calls or go door-knocking on behalf of candidates."

By 2008 the site was generating 9,000 page views a day and editors were credentialed for floor access to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.{{cite web | author=Blueoregon admin|title=BlueOregon: Headed to Denver |publisher=BlueOregon |date=August 22, 2008 |url=http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/08/blueoregon-head.html |accessdate=December 21, 2008}} By 2010, the site featured more than 30 regular contributors,{{cite web|title=Contributors |work=BlueOregon |url=https://www.blueoregon.com/authors/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418043032/https://www.blueoregon.com/authors/ |via=WayBack Machine |accessdate=February 25, 2023|archive-date=2010-04-18 }} and Chisholm and other editors were regularly quoted in local political stories by The Oregonian, the state's largest newspaper.{{cite web |last=Attig |first=Rick |title=Salmon and dams, open primaries and voters |newspaper=The Oregonian |date=October 28, 2008 |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2008/10/salmon_and_dams_open_primaries.html |accessdate=March 27, 2018}}{{cite news |last=Mapes |first=Jeff |title=Schrader a "Blue Dog," but is he really part of the pack? |newspaper=The Oregonian |date=December 17, 2009 |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2009/12/schrader_a_blue_dog_but_is_he.html |accessdate=February 25, 2023}}{{cite news |last=Lane |first=Dee |title=Minnis Cartoon Disappears |newspaper=The Oregonian |date=September 22, 2006 |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2006/09/minnis_cartoon_disappears.html|accessdate=February 25, 2023}}

During this period of growth for BlueOregon, Chisholm served as a political consultant and operated website development company Mandate Media, which provided digital services to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and Gov. Ted Kulongoski, and to the campaigns of then-U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley, then-secretary of state candidate Kate Brown, then-congressional candidate Kurt Schrader, and then-Portland mayoral candidate Sam Adams. In 2008, Jake Weigler, a BlueOregon contributor and campaign manager for Senate candidate Steve Novick, published a post on the site alleging that BlueOregon's coverage of the race was biased towards the Merkley campaign and that Chisholm had a clear conflict of interest.{{cite news |last=Mapes |first=Jeff |title=Blue Oregon a little black-and-blue today |newspaper=The Oregonian |date=March 11, 2008 |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/03/blue_oregon_a_little_black_and.html |accessdate=February 25, 2023}}{{cite web|title=Refusing to play a rigged game |work=BlueOregon |date=March 11, 2008 |url=https://www.blueoregon.com/2008/03/this-is-a-diffi/ |accessdate=February 25, 2023}} "It's pretty transparent that [BlueOregon] is being used as window dressing and as a mouthpiece for the Merkley campaign," Weigler told The Oregonian.

Other campaigns expressed similar complaints about coverage, and reporting in the Willamette Week detailed "ample evidence" that BlueOregon has "posted pieces that portray Chisholm's paying clients favorably." "I'm not a journalist and don't pretend to be," Chisholm later told the paper, "but I work hard to get all voices out there."{{cite news |last=Jaquiss |first=Nigel |date=October 11, 2011 |title=Sins of Omission |url=https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-18067-sins-of-omission.html |work=Willamette Week |access-date=February 6, 2023}}

Between 2006 and 2011, Chisholm was paid nearly $400,000 by state and local Democratic candidates.

Chisholm last posted on BlueOregon in 2020, and the site has not been updated since.{{cite web|title=Sign the petition: We need vote by mail for all |work=BlueOregon |date=April 26, 2020 |url=https://www.blueoregon.com/2020/04/sign-petition-we-need-vote-mail-all/ |accessdate=February 25, 2023}}

In 2023 Chisholm was selected to serve on a committee to draft the district lines which would form the geographic basis of Portland's new form of government.{{cite web |last1=Zielinski |first1=Alex |title=Portland creates group to draw district lines for new form of government |url=https://www.opb.org/article/2023/01/25/portland-oregon-new-form-structure-government-geographic-districts-measure-commission-/ |website=opb.org |publisher=Oregon Public Broadcasting |access-date=15 February 2023}}

He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and their son.{{cite web|title=Our team|url=http://www.mandatemedia.com/our-team/|accessdate=2011-06-26|publisher=Mandate Media}}{{cite news|last=Mayer|first=Rebecca|date=January 22, 2009|title=Obama ushers in new era|newspaper=Lake Oswego Review|url=http://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=43371|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201300/http://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=43371|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 4, 2016|accessdate=June 27, 2011}}

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Category:1973 births

Category:Living people

Category:American political writers

Category:Lewis & Clark College people

Category:University of Southern California alumni

Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon

Category:People from Lake Oswego, Oregon

Category:Lake Oswego High School alumni