Kari Chisholm (born July 2, 1973) is an American political consultant and sports commentator based in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. He became known for commentary on the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...

, and his now-defunct site StiffArmTrophy.com correctly predicted the winner of the trophy every year from 2002 to 2012. He is the co-founder and publisher of BlueOregon, a defunct blog.

Career

Political consultancy and BlueOregon

In 2004, Chisholm, Jeff Alworth, and Jesse Cornett co-founded BlueOregon, a progressive

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

that covered the politics of the U.S. state of

. 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 ''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture. History Early history '' ...

''. 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. 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 ''The Register-Guard'' is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the ''Eugene Daily Guard'' and the ''Morning Register''. The paper serves the Eugene ...

'' stated that " ogs 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 The 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial United States presidential nominating convention, presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform an ...

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

. By 2010, the site featured more than 30 regular contributors, and Chisholm and other editors were regularly quoted in local political stories by ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'', the state's largest newspaper. 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 Jeffrey Alan Merkley (born October 24, 1956) is an American politician who is the junior United States senator from Oregon. He was first elected to the Senate in 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 1999 to 2009 as the repres ...

, then-secretary of state candidate

Kate Brown Katherine Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 38th governor of Oregon from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as the state representative from the 13th distr ...

, then-congressional candidate

Kurt Schrader Walter Kurt Schrader (born October 19, 1951) is an American politician and veterinarian who served as the U.S. representative for from 2009 to 2023. His district covered most of Oregon's central coast, plus Salem, and many of Portland's south ...

, and then-Portland mayoral candidate

Sam Adams Samuel Adams (, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolu ...

. In 2008, Jake Weigler, a BlueOregon contributor and campaign manager for Senate candidate

Steve Novick Steven Novick (born February 8, 1963) is an American politician, attorney, and activist from the U.S. state of Oregon. In 2008 United States Senate election in Oregon, 2008, he was a candidate for U.S. Senate for the seat then held by Republican ...

, 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. "It's pretty transparent that lueOregonis 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." 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. 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.

Personal life

He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and their son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chisholm, Kari 1973 births Living people American political writers Lewis & Clark College people University of Southern California alumni Writers from Portland, Oregon People from Lake Oswego, Oregon Lake Oswego High School alumni