Last week, I sat down for a beer with a fellow by the name of Michael Signer, who intends to seek the Democratic nomination for the 25th District Senate seat, currently occupied by Sen. Creigh Deeds. The purely-speculative race is contingent on the election of Creigh to the position of Attorney General, but that hasn’t kept folks from getting interested in the race in the past year.
Signer is from Northern Virginia — his experience with the 25th consists primarily of having gone to the University of Virginia after attending Princeton and Berkeley. Though he’s recently moved to Charlottesville, his long-distance phone number and time spent in Richmond reveals his status as a newcomer. He’s fresh off an extensive education, and ready to take on the world, beginning with the 25th District.
Though his local chops aren’t so hot, his credentials are impeccable. His extensive education is in law and political science (that’s Dr. Signer to you), he studied with UVa Prof. A.E. Dick Howard (father of the Virginia constitution), and he’s worked in Governor Warner’s office for the past three months as his deputy counselor. He’s both curious and well-informed on matters of policy (particularly foreign) and the mechanics of democracy, though his work on behalf of the Kerry campaign in Virginia made clear that he’s not content to watch from the sidelines. (See his November 2005 piece for the Washington Post, “A Winning Southern Model,” for more on policy and the Kerry campaign.) Prior to that race, he worked for the Clark campaign and even once worked as Creigh Deeds’ legislative aide. Better still, he’s a blogger, for the newly-established “Democracy Arsenal”.
Signer’s what some call “ambitious.” Some Charlottesvillians speculate that he’s got his eye on the governor’s seat, and that running for this seat is just a stepping stone. The term “ambitious” is a bit of a hobby-horse for me. I’m a big fan of cultivating talent, and I think Charlottesville would do well to spend less time eating our young and more time giving a boost to would-be candidates for much-higher office. So while “ambitious” is often used as an insult, I see it as a high compliment. If Signer wants to be governor — and I have no reason to think so — I think that’s great.
I have another hobby-horse, though, and that’s the localness of candidates. I’m not a fan of candidates that just parachute into town and declare that they’re here to help. We saw that recently with Kim Tingley’s candidacy for House of Delegates here in Charlottesville — the guy just showed up out of nowhere, nobody ever having heard the man’s name before, ran for office, came in last, and promptly disappeared again. You’d think he’d have done something — anything — beginning a couple of years ago to make a name for himself, to give people a positive impression of him, to be something other than a complete and total stranger to everybody in the district.
Signer’s relationship to Charlottesville is quite similar, to say nothing of the vast land mass of the whole of the 25th that exists to the west of town. The folks who know him in town know him because he’s talking to all of the Right People™ about running for office. But that won’t win him any votes in the rest of the district, most of which has nothing — and I mean absolutely nothing — to do with Charlottesville.
After watching the unknown-in-Charlottesville Creigh Deeds trounce his competition (Nancy O’Brien, Meredith Richards, and Al Weed) in the November 2001 nomination convention held in downtown Charlottesville, I feel pretty strongly that it’s an uphill battle for anybody from the eastern edge of the district to get this nomination. Eighty-five percent of the 800+ people who showed up at that convention were from Charlottesville and Albemarle, but weighting the vote by population meant that the rest of the district (Allegheny, Bath, Buckingham, Buena Vista, Covington, Nelson and Rockbridge) carried a great deal of weight. Creigh did get a lot of votes from C’ville and Albemarle — a plurality, in fact — which allowed him to win on the first ballot, with 51.5% of the vote. But with the second place winner coming in at a distant 23.5%, he could have done without a huge chunk of that local vote and still kicked ass.
If I was going to move into this district to run for office, I would have moved to Covington a year or two ago, and started making friends among folks west of the mountains, whose individual votes are going to be many times more powerful than each vote from Charlottesville and Albemarle participants in the convention. It’s all but inevitable that some other local notables are going to throw their hats into the ring, only further splintering the vote — why get caught up in the crowd squabbling over the same slice of the pie?
I like Signer. I think he’s a smart guy, and whether he wants to be in the state senate or the governor, I think that’s great. But I can’t honestly see how he’s going to pull it off this time around, and I think he’d be a more logical fit with a Northern Virginia district, since that’s his home.
FWIW, I’m a big fan of the Nelson County Board of Supervisors’ Connie Brennan (who is in Sorensen with me this year). She’s well-known in the western 75% of the district, she has the experience with local government that so badly needs representation in Richmond, and I think she’s a total badass. I wouldn’t say I’m biased (in that I’ve never been on her payroll nor have either of us been in one another’s debt), but Connie is my preference, both because we’re friends and we’re in Sorensen together. Consequently, anybody who talks about running, I’m going to look for fault in, whether that’s Michael Signer or anybody else.
Hey Waldo,
I’m all for young candidates running. We need that in the party.
But this crap about moving around to do it is getting out of control. Our best candidates have lived in the area they want to represent and have a base of support there.
I know Mike from Northern Virginia politics, but why the State Senate, and why Central Virginia? This has been going on a while- Werkheiser was an Arlington Dem who studied which district he wanted to move into. Marsden was a Richmonder for Gilmore, then all of the sudden showed up in Burke to run there. There are others, why can we not field people from the area? Is the party that weak?
“Some Charlottesvillians speculate that he’s got his eye on the governor’s seat, and that running for this seat is just a stepping stone.”
I suppose JFK shouldn’t have been elected by the people in his Congressional district back in the ’50s, because Kennedy was ambitious, and the seat was “just a stepping stone” to higher office.
IMHO, you have to be a micro-minded idiot when someone who plays for your team would like to work his way to the top, and you want to hold him back due to the sin of high aspirations.
Imagine discouraging your child from taking a particular job because he would just be using that job as a stepping stone to other jobs with wider opportunities to make the world a better place. What a foolish, destructive way to think.
I don’t think I agree with you Janis. Voters aren’t looking to hold people back- but it’s unfair to an area that gets one Senator to have one focused on building a statewide careeer then representing that area.
I’m not saying that is Mike, I’m just saying I understand the argument of putting the reins on someone who is looking 4 offices ahead. Do your first job well, and everything else will fall in place for a promotion.
There’s nothing wrong with stepping stones but I will NOT vote for another dammned carpet bagger from Northern Virginia. I’ll write in ‘Mickey Mouse’ in the general election before I vote for this guy. I say this as a dedicated Democrat.
This is a district with a strong, well-organized Democratic party. We have no shortage of excellent candidates. We don’t need this out-of-touch, carpet-bagging lawyer any more than we needed Kim Tingley.
As far as I’m concerned, the final straw with Signer is his hinting at being Mark Warner’s annointed one. First of all I don’t believe that a guy about to run for President even remotely gives a crap about a state Senate primary. Second, even if it’s true I think that most Democrats in this district would strongly resent the idea that anyone but the voters have a say in who our state Senator is.
Michael Signer, get your Yankee butt back up to Northern Virginia and run for office there. You don’t live here, you don’t know us and you aren’t one of us. Maybe if you settle down in the district for a few years and show some signs of actually being a part of the community then we can take another look. Meanwhile, get lost.
Hi all: I think this is a great (if energetic!) exchange, appropriate to Waldo’s original thoughtful post. I understand that there will be a range of responses to the possibility of my candidacy, and thought I’d post below an edited version of a response that I just e-mailed to Waldo, in the hopes that discussion can be directed in even more productive avenues…
And if anyone wants to e-mail me directly, I’d love to hear from you, at michaelsigner@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Mike
*****
Hi Waldo:
Just wanted to write re your blog entry — I thought it was very
fair-minded and well-written and contained some new research I think it’s good for folks to know about. For the very little it may be worth, I thought I’d write you specifically about two things:
1) We may not have gotten into it sufficiently in our conversation, but I do have deeper experience in Charlottesville than your portrait suggests — not as much as a twenty-year veteran of City politics, but more than a newcomer. Here’s the graf from a draft flyer:
“Mike has an extensive record of supporting the Democratic Party in the 25th Senate District. In 1997, he was Creigh Deeds’ Legislative Aide when Deeds was a Delegate representing Bath County. Mike was a Delegate to the 5th Congressional District’s 2004 Democratic Nominating Convention, and was elected to the Convention’s Rules Committee. He was the Communications Director of the 2004 City Council race in Charlottesville and, from Charlottesville, served as the State Director of the Wesley Clark for President campaign in 2003. In 2002, Mike designed and staffed the issues and opposition research internship program for the Meredith Richards for Congress campaign. He is also a former Law Clerk at the Charlottesville Legal Aid Justice Center.”
Additionally, I founded the Committee for Progress on Race, which led the community response to the attack on Daisy Lundy in 2003, and also founded the Center for the Study of Race and Law at UVA.
2) I take what you say about reaching out to the western counties and cities very seriously. I was at the Covington/Bath/Alleghany Picnic on Thursday night and talked to a lot of people about the race besides. I think one thing that you may have under-attended to in your piece was that I’m a good fit for this district both because of how I will energetically and enthusiastically reach out everywhere and, more importantly, because of my ideological leanings. Going back to my early experience working for Creigh, I am a real centrist. I think that growing opportunity, through measures like increased home ownership, rural job growth, and improved worker-retraining, and increasing public health, on issues like school cafeteria reform and preventive health education, are the two most important issues facing this region.
And I believe the Democratic Party can be rebuilt by reaching out to the people — laypeople, farmers, laborers, the rural middle class — who we seem to have made a profession of alienating in the last couple of decades. I had a terrific time in Covington in part because I feel like I can connect to these folks and what they need from Richmond, both because of my experience as an aide to Creigh, and because of where I’m coming from on the Party.
So, there you are — aside from these two issues, I thought your piece was, on balance, something I’m glad to have out there, so thanks. I’ll look forward to talking with you in the future about this and many other things.
Mike
Mike, how does moderate beat liberal in C’Ville?
Hi Ben:
Many Charlottesville folks are thinking that, because C’ville will only have a percentage of the total convention vote in the low 20’s, it will be important to have someone — like Creigh — able to win in the entire 25th district. As I’m talking to folks, even insiders deep within the C’ville party structure, I’m hearing that both opportunity-based centrism and electability will be important criteria for them (though by no means sufficent — it’s also very important, as these posts highlight, to earn your stripes within the party). Hope this helps…
Mike
I’d suggest that it’s more important that candidates earn their stripes within the community, than the party. As for “opportunity-based centrism”, I going to need some educating on that one. I like candidates that have passion and, somehow, “opportunity-based centrism” doesn’t sound like a passionate belief to me.
Harry:
I completely agree, on both points. I chose to live in Charlottesville — and suffer through the commute to Richmond! — because I fell in love with this community over several years of living and contributing here. And I’m as passionate about “opportunity economics” as I am about a variety of other issues, from racial reconciliation to preventing child obesity. I think helping folks be meaningfully employed, with the ability to improve their station in life, is just about the deepest role the left can play in America (and fits in with the role we’ve traditionally played in American life, from FDR through Truman and JFK). If you have a sec, you should check out the website of the Hope Street Group, whose Virginia operation I’m directing, at http://www.hopestreetgroup.org. HSG focuses on developing public policies based on opportunity — like increasing home ownership, improving pre-K education, and reducing corporate welfare while reducing corporate income taxes. These are all issues that should elicit as much or more passion from Democrats as anything else.
As for centrism, this is not triangulation; there’s a difference. To me, “centrism” is a rich, historically charged mission for Democrats: speaking to, and working for, the vital center. I believe we Democrats are here to serve the people. As Creigh Deeds has said, “There are more of us than there are of them. We just have to let everyone know it.” To me, being a centrist and making government work for all the people is about the most Democratic thing we can do.
I think the iidea that Signer is an “opportunist” or has poor “local chops” is a little silly. He’s a native Virginian,
lived in C-ville for the past several years, and lives there now. He’s been active in VA, 25th District, and C-ville politics.
Taking advantage of an opportunity to serve doesn’t make someone an opportunist.
CSR, who called him an “opportunist”?
On localness, though, just look at the lineup last time around. We had former Mayor Nancy O’Brien (the first female mayor of Charlottesville), Vice Mayor Meredith Richards, and former state senate candidate and well-known Nelson County farmer Al Weed running for the office. All had deep local roots, and enjoyed broad name recognition. Use that as a yardstick, and perhaps you’ll appreciate my perspective.
Mike,
We already know that you have a good resume. So having been Creigh’s legislative aide, etc is really great and all but it doesn’t change the equation. The hurdle that you have to pass is the ‘I don’t know this guy from Adam’ hurdle. We haven’t seen you involved in this community. You’re being seen as a carpet-bagger. A guy who stops in this district from time to time to punch his resume but isn’t really part of what’s going on. To address that problem by pointing out more resume items only serves to make it worse.
You’ve got to prove that you’re a bona-fide local. This is going to be a caucus if it happens at all. It’s largely about personal relationships. Most of the other candidates in the race will be people who many of the people at that caucus have known personally for at least a few years. This puts you at a serious disadvantage. Making the rounds a few months before the election to have coffee with all the local so-and-sos is nowhere near enough.
As I am sure you recall, Creigh won his seat in a special election right after winning reelection as a delegate. He had the advantage of a well-oiled existing campaign organization that was already in high gear. That and an exceptional dose of charisma. People saw the volunteers, signs, etc., realized how strong a campaign he had and said ‘this the guy who can win the seat.’ I don’t think that Creigh had the votes to win the night before the caucus. He changed minds in that auditorium.
You’re pretty thin on street cred as a local and there’s no way you’re going to have the kind of organization that Creigh did. Your best option is to get out there with a real fire in your belly about something. Folks will sometimes waive the ‘do I know this guy?’ requirement for a candidate with that RFK excitement. I’m not seeing any Kennedy flair yet. If I were you I would get some and fast. Show us some real passion about something that we don’t have an advocate for. Fire up their imaginations. Do that while not allowing your own campaign organization to destroy you (unlike most first-time candidates) and you could win.
PS: Please don’t try to work up a passion over education or health care. Every boring candidate who doesn’t want to go out on a limb just goes ‘blah blah education… blah blah health care.’ Those are the cop-out issues for candidates who have a whole lot of money and no ideas. You need something like Jim Gilmore’s out of state trash issue. That was great. The guy just totally pulled something out of thin air that nobody even knew they were supposed to be worried about. That gets their attention. Talk about education just goes in one ear and out the other (pun intended).
Nice to see the exchange, but it is 100% academic. Creigh is not going to become AG.
Although, it is nice to see some people remember the district goes beyond the City limits and that other people exist off the Mall. As far as carpet bagging goes, isn’t most of Charlottesville populated with Northerners now?
I hope interest like this over who we choose as our candidate continues. This interchange actually reminds me of discussions I’ve had w/ Mike about his centrist views- honest, heated, and intelligent. Mike if anything, does I think, tend to generate conversation….. Thus far, the people I’ve voted for in this area have spoken from the heart and appeared to be truly interested in our community. I’m waiting to see if Mike has these qualities. For now though, I will say, having met him over 15 years ago in Governor’s School and having enjoyed his company since he moved back Charlottesville, that he is extremely charismatic, intelligent, and friendly. He does seem like someone meant to go places. I’ve always thought that was a positive… someone we’d eventually be proud to claim as having gotten his start in Charlottesville.
Mike, you said “because C’ville will only have a percentage of the total convention vote in the low 20’s”… How do you know there will be a convention. When Warren Barry resigned, I was on the 37th District Committee to decide method of nomination and we basically had the option of anything we wanted with any rules we wanted with the exception of an open primary run by the state.
As a native Southwest Virginian (and three year C-ville resident), I think the talk about Mike being an opportunist only proves his point: Mark Warner did not win the 9th Congressional District by fooling everyone into believing he was “one of us.” To the contrary, he won there because he convinced folks that he was a genuine, effective leader. I would rather have someone who is a genuine, effective leader (which I can vouch that Mike is) who is “not from around here” than a local who is ineffective and lacks any creative spark. Ironically, that is the point Mike made in the Post piece. Given the chance, Mike can run the same kind of campaign in the 25th. If you doubt his sincerity, go to one of his events–he will prove you wrong without trying.
Mike,
I appreciate your resume, and see you as having a lot to offer. Good candidates are often
hard to find, and you seem like a top guy. So stand for office, that’s fine with me.
Here’s my question, as to whether you’re somebody I could passionately support or not:
What is your position on free trade? If you were in Congress would you have supported CAFTA or not?
There’s my tarbaby, punch away.
Here’s my question: When Mr. Signer attended UVA Law School, was he registered to vote in
Charlottesville or Albemarle?
Btw, Mike, while we’ve got your ear:
I read your piece “A Winning Southern Model” in the WaPo after the ’04
election, and I’d like to say thanks. As the first clearly stated
revision to Demspeak convential wisdom I’d read after the Kerry disaster,
it was a revelation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64403-2004Nov20.html
If you haven’t read this article from the Weekly Standard, I direct
your attention. “Hunting Bubbas” is a much more fun workup the Weekly
Standard did on Mark Warner’s appeal. Any Warner Supporters should
read this, it’s a riot. It’s also good politics.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/716psthq.asp
Josh C.
Addison: I was registered in and voted in Charlottesville…
Josh: Thanks for your kind comments about the article — and, wow, that Weekly Standard article is a terrific read! Almost Hunter Thompson-esque, a lot of fun… (On Cafta, I don’t mean to punt, sorry, but I just don’t think it’s right for me to speculate on how I would have voted as a sitting member of Congress without knowing what my party’s caucus was saying behind the scenes… I’d be glad to get into a back-and-forth on particular issues off-line, if you’d like — michaelsigner@gmail.com.)
Mike
Mike, You’ll never stand a chance in this district, the way it’s drawn now anyway. You’re a carpetbagger sir and
while Albemarle and Charlottesville may well support you; the rest of the district: Appalachia, will not.
I remember working the Buena Vista preceinct on election day last time and seeing how his opponent,
Jane Maddux was laughed at because she “wasn’t from there.” Furthermore, you’d have to be every bit as
conservative as Deeds, and it doesn’t appear you are. This district, while currently Democrat, is very
conservative. And since we’re speaking of people moving about in order to run for office; if Del. Ben
Cline were to move into the district, the Republicans would almost certainly win.
I’d surely appreciate any additional insight Mr. Jaquith or others might provide as to the mechanics of the selection process. Mr. Jaquith writes that the votes at the nominating convention in 2001 were weighted by population; what are the relative populations of Charlottesville, Albemarle, and the western portion of the district? Also, Mr. Tribbett writes that, when Warren Barry resigned, “we basically had the option of anything we wanted with any rules we wanted with the exception of an open primary run by the state.” Is this to say that votes at the convention/caucus are not necessarily allocated according to population? If so, who are the Right People™ whose opinions will influence the rule-making process at the convention?
With respect to Mr. Signer, I have spoken with him on several occasions the past couple of years. He strikes me as enormously charismatic (a quality disappointingly lacking among the candidates in the recent race for the Democratic nomination to succeed Mitch Van Yahres in the 57th); I’d hazard to guess that he could significantly energize the local party. More important than his personality, he seems to be overflowing with ideas for our area and for the state at-large. It seems to me that it is ideas – and a strong voice to articulate them – that is lacking to some extent in the Democratic Party, and I think we’d be crazy to reject a strong candidate with the potential to really effect change in Richmond, merely because we think four years (or however long Mr. Signer’s been in the area) is not sufficient time to “know” and “be one” of us.
Here are some of the options the party could choose:
1) A caucus in one location where any voter can show up and the candidate with the most vote wins.
2) A caucus in multiple locations (e.g. each county) and every voter can show up and the winner has the most votes when all locations are added together.
*What we did in 37th*
3) A caucus to elect Delegates to a convention so each county is represented by the correct amount of people
*How state conventions normally work*
3a) Convention votes once and winner takes all
3b) Convention votes until one candidate has over 50%
4) A convention where anyone can show up and vote.
4a) Convention votes once and winner takes all
4b) Convention votes until one candidate has over 50%
5) A convention where anyone can show up and vote. Votes are weighted by County.
5a) Convention votes once and winner takes all
5b) Convention votes until one candidate has over 50%
6) Waldo selects the nominee
Mr. Jaquith writes that the votes at the nominating convention in 2001 were weighted by population; what are the relative populations of Charlottesville, Albemarle, and the western portion of the district?
It’s actually not based on population, but based on Democratic turnout in the last presidential primary. You can get those numbers from the SBE.
Ben,
Having been in on the decision-making process for these things on a number of occasions, I can tell you with about 90% certainty that it will be a convention where any registered voter can come to vote, but each district will be weighted based on Democratic turnout in the last Presidential primary. They will hold multiple rounds of balloting if necessary to ensure that eventually someone gets 50% or more.
The danger with ‘winner takes all’ in a race with as many candidates as this one will have is that you could have somebody walk out of there with only 25% support, and that support concentrated in one little corner of the district. This risks a majority of dissatisfied people walking out of that convention hall who may not rally behind the winner as they should. When you have multiple rounds of balloting (or preferably an instant run-off, but few of the party Chairs can wrap their brains around that concept) you usually wind up with a winner that the maximum number of voters will be happy with.