Gia Clarke, Summer 2023 Collaborator at Power In Place”
Power in Place had the privilege of speaking with Miki Porta, the former president of the League of Women Voters of New Canaan CT. She held this position for five years. The League of Women Voters is an organization that was founded in 1920, six months before white women got the right to vote in the United States. During her time with the League, Porta led many of its executives, such as the “Know Your Representatives Guide” geared towards informing citizens about their local candidates, and many voter registration drives. Porta is also the co-founder of Pesticide-Free New Canaan, a non-profit initiative that educates people about the dangers, ecological and human health-related, of chemical lawn pesticides. She received her B.A. in English and Fine Art History at Tufts University.
Miki has always been an advocate for other people. Miki recalls her first political act when she was just nine years old: “We had just moved from NYC to a suburb in Connecticut. And I heard people talking about woodpeckers damaging their homes. So I started reading up on how to humanely deter woodpeckers from doing this to your home. And I wrote a little short pamphlet on woodpeckers.” She further iterates that she made woodpecker guards to deter the woodpeckers from damaging homes. As absurd as this was compared to her peers at that age, “Everybody had lemonade stands in those days and I had these woodpecker guards,” it was a political and informative act. At nine years old, she was an advocate for woodpeckers. Miki’s desire to educate and advocate has shown to carry her throughout her life, as seen through her work with the League and other nonprofits.
The main responsibility of working with the League of Women Voters was the holding of candidate debates. While most national debates are done through the media today, prior to 1980, the League always hosted debates of all levels. Despite this shift in history, New Canaan’s chapter still holds candidate debates for every level of government to this day. Porta, and the League itself, have an educational motive when it comes to debates rather than the media’s debates, which are, as Porta says, “a forum that was a little lower on substance and a lot larger on showbiz and sizzle.” Because there is an emphasis on voter education rather than drama, educationally driven Porta wanted to make sure that the questions are neutrally worded and that the assortment of questions was also neutral.
Because of the League’s emphasis on educational and non-partisan mission, when picking women to write the questions, they would “hand-select the writers, and we didn’t hand-select them for political neutrality, we hand-selected them for their intelligence, their objectivity, their writing and analytical skills, their research skills, it was a really serious responsibility,” as Porta says. The League is also in charge of the “Know Your Representatives Guide” which is an informational guide to every single elected candidate.
Talking to Porta was an insightful experience, as it helped us PiP interns to figure out how to best educate people on our own Day of Action voter initiatives. Miki Porta taught us to be informative, objective, and open-minded when educating and encouraging others to vote for our initiatives. Thank you so much Miki for speaking with us!
Gia Clarke is a rising Sophomore at DePaul University. She is a journalism major with a minor in psychology. She is also passionate and heavily involved in advocacy work at DePaul, as she is the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion chair for DePaul’s Planned Parenthood Generation Action Committee. In her free time, she enjoys writing, playing electric guitar, crocheting, drawing, and reading. One day, she aspires to be a journalist that gets to travel and write about current events worldwide.