I not only swear that I read Katie Porter's memoir, but I can swear that I finished it in ten days. Congresswoman Porter sent it to me as a gift given to those who donate to her campaign. I have never voted for Katie Porter because I don't live in her district, but I have been an admirer of this member of the U.S. House of Representatives. I first encountered her on the news making a whiteboard presentation to Congress. That's why I decided to call this review "Whiteboard Warrior". Katie Porter's office actually purchased a whiteboard on wheels for Congress. I'm sure that the Congresswoman herself is getting good use out of that purchase.
Porter feared that if she didn't run, her district would be represented by a Republican as it had been in the past. Yet it turned out that Democratic State Senator Dave Min who ran against Porter in the Democratic primary, had ideas similar to Katie Porter's. She has endorsed Min as the successor to her seat in the House of Representatives if she becomes a U.S. Senator.
Congresswoman Porter tells us about how her first day in Congress went off schedule by many hours. In her experience, this happens frequently in Congress. Being able to schedule is crucial to an employed single parent. If Katie Porter can't plan, she can't get child care.
Porter went back to Iowa, her original home state, and remembered that she'd gone to Congress to create change. So she had to keep trying to make Congress work for her. It occurred to me that there might be other single mothers elected by their districts. If Katie Porter found a way to be both single parent and legislator, others could follow her path.
Katie Porter actually collapsed on the floor of the House. She asked a colleague how he managed, and he told her she was working too hard. All she really had to do in Congress was "show up and vote". This meant following the agendas of others. Porter wanted to be a change maker.
Dressing up as Batgirl for Halloween may not be a radical change-making act, but it was certainly unusual for a Congresswoman. There's an image of Katie Porter as Batgirl that I found from The U.K. Daily Mail which is a tabloid newspaper. The link to this image is here. If you want to find out more about The U.K. Daily Mail, you can go to their article on Wikipedia here.
Before Porter was a Congresswoman, she was a law school professor. Like other professors, she was expected to do research. She decided to research homeowners who had been foreclosed on because the terms of their mortgage had been changed without prior notification. This meant that the lenders were cheating, but the debtors' lawyers never asked for documentation. Porter found that mortgage companies were guilty of violating the law more than half the time. So she did valuable work before she was in Congress, and could do so again.
Katie Porter has Iranian American constituents who have sung to her about the Zoroastrian festival of Nowruz which happens at the Spring Equinox. It's considered Iranian New Year's Day. They were trying to educate their Congresswoman about an important holy day in their religion. I found information about Nowruz on Wikipedia here.
Porter tells us that there are fake PACs. In this context, PAC stands for Political Action Committee. Voters often receive fundraising e-mails from PACs saying that they're working for a variety of causes. It seems to me that it's a good idea to be wary of their claims--particularly if you've never heard of their organization.
I was surprised that Porter had apparently never taken a statistics class. Perhaps her law school thought that lawyers don't need to know the ins and outs of statistics. Yet at one point, Porter was working with Elizabeth Warren who expected Porter to know that she couldn't ignore mothers in a survey because she thought they were too busy. This invalidated the data that Porter had collected. I had to take a class on statistics in library school. Finding out what types of patrons they have is how librarians know what their priorities should be. I didn't enjoy the statistics class, but I have since found out how useful it is to understand what makes statistics valid or invalid.
Porter revealed that members of Congress aren't allowed to have other jobs. I didn't know that. I thought that lawyers, for example, were still practicing law when Congress wasn't in session. They can get stock dividends and other types of investment income. Porter realized that her lack of wealth made her very different from many other members of Congress.
Katie Porter is currently one of three California members of the House of Representatives who are running for Dianne Feinstein's U.S. Senate seat. Senator Feinstein is retiring. I normally don't get this political on this blog, but the political content is relevant to the review.
I liked I Swear Politics is Messier Than My Minivan very much. I gave it a B+.
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