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.[1] 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.[2][3] 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.[4]

By 2006 the site was the top-read Oregon political blog, with 3,000 to 4,000 readers a day around election season.[4] 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."[4]

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.[2][5] By 2010, the site featured more than 30 regular contributors,[6] and Chisholm and other editors were regularly quoted in local political stories by The Oregonian, the state's largest newspaper.[7][8][9]

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.[2] 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.[10][11] "It's pretty transparent that [BlueOregon] is being used as window dressing and as a mouthpiece for the Merkley campaign," Weigler told The Oregonian.[10]

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."[2] "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."[12]

Between 2006 and 2011, Chisholm was paid nearly $400,000 by state and local Democratic candidates.[12]

Chisholm last posted on BlueOregon in 2020, and the site has not been updated since.[13]

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.[14]

Chisholm is known as a leading commentator on the Heisman Trophy, the award given annually to the most outstanding college football player.[15][16] His site, Stiff Arm Trophy, correctly projected the winner of each Heisman contest for twelve consecutive years.[17] Chisholm's projections have been referenced on ESPN[18] and in Sports Illustrated.[19][20]