Oregon Capital Chronicle wins seven regional journalism awards

The Oregon Capital Chronicle did the best work of any small newsroom in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Alaska or Montana in 2025, according to judges of the Society of Professional Journalists’ annual Northwest Excellence in Journalism awards.

The Capital Chronicle’s win for general excellence was one of four first-place awards in the regional contest. Capital Chronicle reporters also notched two second-place nods and one third-place finish.

Reporter Mia Maldonado finished first in the government and politics reporting category for her July 2025 profile of state Rep. Cyrus Javadi, “Some GOP constituents call him a RINO. Other Oregonians are starting to trust him.”

Maldonado noticed during her legislative coverage that Javadi, then a sophomore Republican representative from the North Coast, had begun splitting with his party on LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and welfare. When the 2025 session ended, she traveled to meet Javadi and constituents on the coast and talked to his colleagues for what the judge deemed “a fascinating profile of an elected official who defies categorization.”

Her reporting also proved prescient: Javadi that fall became the lone Republican to vote for a suite of tax and fee increases to fund transportation needs, then switched his party affiliation. He’s running for reelection as a Democrat, and Maldonado is covering that campaign.

Senior reporter Alex Baumhardt placed second in the government and politics category for her investigation into Oregon’s lax conflict of interest rules for lawmakers. Baumhardt learned that an eastern Oregon state representative kept weighing in on bills that would affect her family business without disclosing conflicts – and that doing so was acceptable under state law.

Baumhardt won a first-place award in the newly created federal impact reporting category for her coverage of how federal job cuts affect critical operations at the dams that supply more than half the hydropower in the Northwest. The judge praised her story for its research and quality of writing, including its “excellent flow and conclusion.”

Editor-in-chief Julia Shumway took first in soft news feature reporting for her story on the Oregon Capitol honoring former Senate President Peter Courtney, who rolled into Salem on a Greyhound bus in 1969 and went from living at the YMCA while clerking for a judge to becoming the longest-serving legislator in Oregon history.

Baumhardt also earned second place for education reporting for digging into the hard-to-find details of Oregon’s deal with computer chip company Nvidia to bring AI education to schools. And reporter Shaanth Nanguneri, who has been doggedly covering Oregon’s attempts to regulate federal immigration enforcement, placed third in crime and law enforcement reporting for his coverage of the state’s efforts to charge federal agents.

The Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, and the awards recognized two other States Newsroom journalists for work in the Northwest.

Stateline’s Alex Brown, a Seattle-based environmental reporter, won first-place awards in the medium division for environment and natural disaster reporting for his coverage of the Bear Gulch fire and in racial equity reporting for an article on federal cuts to tribal programs.

Idaho-based reproductive rights reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris placed second in federal impact reporting for her coverage of political difficulties affecting cervical cancer prevention and treatment.

Editor-in-chief Julia Shumway has worked for the Capital Chronicle since its founding in 2021. She previously worked as a legislative reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times in Phoenix and reported on local and state government and politics in Iowa, Nebraska and Bend. An award-winning journalist, Julia also serves as president of the Oregon Legislative Correspondents Association, or Capitol press corps and treasurer of the Oregon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She lives in Salem with an orange cat, the Capital Chronicle’s Fred-itor-in-chief.