[thechat] cuteness limiter (was RE: voter turnout)

ekm at seastorm.com ekm at seastorm.com
Thu Nov 6 14:56:53 CST 2008


Judah wrote:
Yes, Kari was helping run the Merkley campaign. Of course he also was
running one of the leading progressive political blogs at the time
(BlueOregon) and ended up causing a nasty little rift in the community
with his less than transparent underhanded treatment of Steve Novick
in the primary.

I'm glad that Merkley won, but I would have much preferred Novick.

---------------------------------------------------------------
BlueOregon.com is the blog Kari started in 2004, still runs, writes for,
comments on... (despite my political and general ignorance I was one of
the first Blue Oregon bloggers... token single mom with an attitude?)

References on the Novick thing:
http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/01/fake-endorsemen.html
http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/03/this-is-a-diffi.html
http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/03/blue_oregon_a_little_black_and.html

Here's what I know about Kari, having known him nearly 8 years as
co-worker and friend:
1. He's f'ing brilliant, and a really decent human being.
2. He is first and foremost, a political geek (USC degree in Political
Science).  Second, he's a web geek.  back-end, front-end, content... with
some very innovative ideas, that he follows through on.  I have tremendous
respect for him.
3. He is an opinionated human being.  He does in fact blog, as himself, on
Blue Oregon, full-heartedly.  It does, in fact, get "squishy" and
confusing since he also represents different candidates in various ways. I
believe he is as upfront about this as he can be, without actually
silencing himself.  This causes confusion, and lots of accuations of bias
in who does/does not post (and what they post) on BlueOregon.  I don't
think anyone has ever posed as an objective reporter or disinterested
observer on that blog.
4. Kari takes risks, he's an early adapter, and he pushes boundaries. 
Risk-taking and boundary-pushing are something he and I have in common, so
I empathize with him when it causes him heat, or when, occasionally, he
steps in it.  Kari is, to me, a brand of Oregon maverick.
5. BlueOregon.com afaik is open to any progressive political blogger.
6. Does Kari use blogs/aggregators, etc to enhance SEO juice on his
candidates' sites?  You betcha.

When Blue Oregon started in 2004 Kari's business was really small.  Now
(since 2005) Mandate Media has really taken off, as has the blog, and yes,
there is now a lot of controversy about the potential for conflict of
interest.  But then, Kari takes on candidate clients he endorses, and vice
versa.  Does Kari lie or deliberately misrepresent truth? I've never known
him to.

I have to give the dude kudos... his clients have an amazing win record (I
have built two progressive candidate websites myself; both of them lost..
one of them lost to one of Kari's clients).

Anyway... his wife is Carrie.  ;)

Erika




More information about the thechat mailing list