Hello from the Capital Chronicle’s new(ish) editor

I put off writing this column for weeks, for a few reasons. 

As a rule, journalists are much more comfortable writing about other people than ourselves. It also felt a little silly to introduce myself to readers who may have seen my byline hundreds of times here and in other Oregon news outlets since the Capital Chronicle launched in 2021. 

Perhaps most importantly, the ongoing legislative session and the constant decisions from D.C. affecting Oregon meant the Capital Chronicle team, like our readers, is trying to stay afloat in a flood of too much news. 

But I’ve always been drawn to political stories that lend insight into who people are and why they make the decisions they do, and it’s only fair to share that perspective into how the Capital Chronicle team and I approach our work. 

So, hi. I’m Julia Shumway, and I’ve been the Capital Chronicle’s editor-in-chief for the past month. 

Like more than half of Oregon adults, I wasn’t born here. In fact, Oregon was the eighth state I lived in before my 24th birthday, after my father’s education and career and then my own took me from Missouri to Illinois to Colorado to Arizona to New York back to Arizona to Iowa to Nebraska to Bend. (I moved cross-country twice more after leaving The Bulletin, but because those moves were to cover statehouses in Phoenix and Salem, I didn’t reach the milestone of living in 10 states before age 30. Now, I hope to never again drive a moving truck across state lines.) 

But like many of you, I chose Oregon. Blurry photos from the backseat of the minivan my parents, four younger siblings and I took on a spring break trip to Portland and Seattle have been on Facebook for 15 years with captions about how I was going to retire to Oregon someday, and stepping off a small plane onto the tarmac of the Redmond Airport ahead of a job interview in Bend in 2017 felt like coming home. 

I was a little less certain when I officially moved to the state a month later and nearly ran out of fuel near Rome, but a kind woman who runs a gas station there and gave me enough to limp to Burns is to thank — or blame, depending on how you feel about my work — for me writing about Oregon instead of becoming the subject of a cautionary tale. 

For all our jokes about how “the Oregon way” means creating a task force to draft a report to inform a plan and then do nothing, this often understated state is arguably the best in the country. We’re hipsters who led the country on democratic reforms like mail voting and environmental protections like the bottle bill — as well as some innovative ideas that didn’t spread, like the infamous attempt to blow up a beached whale carcass. 

And after covering local and state government in three other states, I feel pretty confident saying Oregon is special. 

I started my career in Burlington, Iowa, copy editing and later covering local government for the state’s oldest newspaper. The Hawk Eye — which you may have read about in a lengthy Atlantic magazine story a few years ago — gave Iowa its nickname and celebrated its 180th birthday during my tenure.

I honed my ability to write quickly and concisely during a six-month stint covering Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature — and learned a lot about the Oregon Trail on weekend jaunts around the state. During my two years as The Bulletin’s local government reporter in Bend, I got a crash course in Oregon’s land use and housing policy, developed my writing skills with the help of talented editors and met sources, readers and friends who stayed in touch after I left.

I’m forever grateful to those Bulletin readers who have been some of the Capital Chronicle’s most vocal cheerleaders since we launched, and for the editors who modeled the kind of guidance and mentoring I hope to provide for my staff. 

I grew confidence and a thicker skin at the Arizona Capitol Times, covering the state Senate through a global pandemic and its attempt to overturn the 2020 election by turning our ballots over to a firm called the Cyber Ninjas to spin around on color-coded turntables in an old basketball stadium known as the Madhouse on McDowell. (Yes, that’s all real; no, I can barely believe it either.) 

And since September 2021, I’ve had a dream job of covering state government and politics for the Capital Chronicle, learning from editors Les Zaitz and Lynne Terry and reporters Alex Baumhardt and Ben Botkin. I also serve on the board of Oregon’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and as president of the Oregon Legislative Correspondents Association, roles that allow me to provide training opportunities for new journalists and advocate for press access at the Capitol. 

Baumhardt, a fearless Portland-based reporter who has covered the education and environment since the Capital Chronicle launched, is now our senior reporter. She continues to juggle day-to-day coverage with ambitious projects like her award-winning reporting on nitrate pollution in northeast Oregon and a recent four-part series on Oregon and Washington using carbon credits. 

We’ve hired a brilliant journalist for one of two staff openings, and I can’t wait to tell you more about her and start sharing her work in a few weeks. We’re also still looking for the fourth member of our team, who will cover the Legislature and governor with the flexibility to build a beat. Learn more about that opening here. 

The Capital Chronicle’s role in Oregon’s media ecosystem has only become more vital in the years since we launched as more legacy outlets cut back on statehouse coverage and shrink their newsrooms. If you’d like to help us continue our mission of producing high-quality journalism that’s free to read and free for other news outlets to share with their readers, consider donating. 

And we could use your help in other ways to capture the fullness of this state. We publish guest commentaries to showcase diverse perspectives on the issues facing Oregon — and ideas for solutions. If you’re a freelancer with an interesting story to pitch about state policy, a reader with questions or a news tipster, drop me a line.