''BluegrassReport.org'' is a defunct

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

-oriented

political blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

that covered

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

, especially with regard to former

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Ernie Fletcher Ernest Lee Fletcher (born November 12, 1952) is an American physician and politician. In 1998, he was elected to the first of three consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives; he resigned in 2003 after being elected the 60th ...

( R), as well as state government in general and

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

officeholders representing the state. The blog, which further covered ongoing intra-

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

operations, political issues and

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

s, was started in June 2005 by Democratic consultant Mark Nickolas, former campaign manager for both

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

of the

Kentucky House The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a ...

Jody Richards Walter Demaree "Jody" Richards Jr. (born February 20, 1938) is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1976 until 2019. He is the longest serving Speaker of the House in the history o ...

and U.S. House Rep.

Ben Chandler Albert Benjamin Chandler III (born September 12, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States representative for from 2004 to 2013. A Democrat, Chandler was first elected to Congress in a 2004 special election. He ...

's 2003

gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...

campaign . The blog, edited solely by Nickolas for most of its active period, described itself as "An Unfiltered and Candid Look at Politics, Politicians and the Media in Kentucky". The chief recipient of the blog's criticism was Governor Fletcher. Fletcher and many of his subordinates were

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of ...

as part of the state's 2005–2006 merit system investigation, and this, in addition to other controversies surrounding the Fletcher administration, had become the focus of a large number of posts. Other major targets were

Kentucky Supreme Court The Kentucky Supreme Court was created by a 1975 constitutional amendment and is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Prior to that the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky. The Kentucky Court o ...

Chief Justice Joseph Lambert, Republican

Senate President President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for ex ...

David L. Williams and former Kentucky Democratic Party chairman

Jerry Lundergan Gerald G. Lundergan (born 1946 or 1947) is an American businessman, politician and member of the Democratic Party from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1980 to 1985 and 1987 to 1989 and has se ...

. On May 24, 2007, Nickolas announced on the blog that he would be moving with his girlfriend to

Montana Montana () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West List of regions of the United States#Census Bureau-designated regions and divisions, division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North ...

, her home state, at the end of the month. Nickolas continued blogging up until a week before he closed the blog permanently on July 2. In Montana, Nickolas started a new blog called ''Rocky Mountain Report''. After an infusion of financial support, ''BluegrassReport.org'' was revived on August 6, 2007, to continue running at least through the 2007 Fall statewide campaigns in Kentucky. According to the

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, the last post on the blog occurred on August 19, 2008, and the website was shut down sometime in 2009.

Controversy and legal issues

In June 2006, the blog became the focus of a controversy involving a state government clampdown on the

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of particular genres of

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikip ...

s, including political

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

s, where ''BluegrassReport.org'' amongst a range of blogs was blocked, while some blogs remained accessible, leaving a widely reported impression that the blocks were selective and perhaps political in nature. On July 10, 2006,

Public Citizen Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas. Lobbying efforts Public Citizen advocates before all three branches of the Uni ...

filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nickolas challenging the

constitutionality Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...

of the state government's blocking actions. On January 17, 2007, Nickolas was indicted on charges of willfully failing to file any state income tax returns for 2003, 2004 or 2005. ''The Courier-Journal'' reported that Nickolas told the paper he paid his state income taxes in full for those years in December 2006, after the state Revenue Cabinet informed him that he was under investigation. The ''

Lexington Herald-Leader The ''Lexington Herald-Leader'' is a newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and based in Lexington, Kentucky. According to the ''1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook'', the paid circulation of the ''Herald-Leader'' is the second larg ...

'' reported that Nickolas paid those taxes with checks from an account in the name of the nonprofit foundation through which he runs his blog. The case against Nickolas was dropped on May 18, 2007.

Awards

''BluegrassReport.org'' tied with '' Tennessee Guerilla Women'' to win the 2005

Koufax Award Koufax may refer to: *Sandy Koufax (born 1935), Major League Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher *Koufax (band), an indie rock band **''Koufax EP Koufax may refer to: * Sandy Koufax (born 1935), Major League Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher * Koufax (band) ...

for "Best State or Local Blog".

References

{{Reflist

External links

''BluegrassReport.org'' blog
(last known archive)
''Rocky Mountain Report'' blog
(last known archive) Defunct mass media in Kentucky American political blogs Internet properties established in 2005 Internet properties disestablished in 2009 2005 establishments in Kentucky 2009 disestablishments in Kentucky Defunct American websites