Signer shares vision for LG job
What does the lieutenant governor in Virginia do? Tim Kaine was a pretty good LG back in his day, I think in large part due to the fact that he took what is basically a part-time job with limited constitutional responsibilities and turned it into a full-time gig as Mark Warner’s eyes and ears out on the front lines.
Mike Signer seems to have a similar vision for the job currently held by Republican part-timer Bill Bolling.
“I envision the office of lieutenant governor as a public advocate, tackling the systems that are failing ordinary Virginians every day,” said Signer, a former deputy counselor to Mark Warner and senior strategist on Tom Perriello’s improbable 2008 Fifth District congressional upset win.
A repeat performance for Signer in the crowded Democratic Party lieutenant-governor field might be just as improbable for Signer, who has not held elected office and has almost no name recognition outside of the innermost circles of the Democratic Party of Virginia establishment.
But the race is wide open, to say the least, with the perceived frontrunners in the persons of former Secretary of Finance Jody Wagner and Russell County Board of Supervisors member Jon Bowerbank not breaking away from the pack here three months and change from the June primary.
I’m looking for compelling ideas from the candidates as we meet them and try to decide where they fit best into the primary field. It took most of my conversation with Signer to get one to write about in this column, but the one was worth the wait.
Signer wants to see the state divert some of its federal stimulus monies toward environmental restoration and cleanup a la FDR’s Works Progress Administration, which is of course in many ways the model upon which the Obama administration stimulus has been built in the first place.
“Just as during the WPA, you could employ teens and young adults to do these jobs that need done,” Signer said. “They’d be good jobs, but not the kind of jobs with wages that you’d pay somebody with a family who’s much more entrenched. There are very effective programs that we could do to create jobs for kids coming out of high school or college to make sure that they have a job,” Signer said.
The rest of our conversation was a bit too much on the wonkish side for me to go into more detail on. Signer is young, at 36, and has done most of his work in government in Democratic Party politics in behind-the-scenes capacities. My personal inclination is toward candidates with experience in building business and industry and developing and implementing local and state-level policies, for what that’s worth.
I’ll be interested in learning more from Mike Signer as to how he thinks he could translate his experience in elections and party politics in general to the good of Democrats and Republicans and political agnostics statewide. There is potential there in his thoughts on the use of stimulus funds as our guide.
- Story by Chris Graham
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Mike has a great deal of depth on the issues
I’ll hope to hear more from that depth the next time we talk.
Thanks, Chris — I enjoyed our conversation and am glad you found the idea of using the leverage of the office of LG — one of Virginia’s only three constitutional offices — to channel stimulus funds toward job creation appealing.
The centering idea of my campaign is to convert the LG into a public advocate driving the Commonwealth toward becoming a New Dominion. It can and should be an office working every day to take on systems that are failing working Virginians. Among the ways to do this: get the legislature moving on important policy challenges through the creation of new commissions with specific charters that produce bipartisan legislative packages, as Don Beyer did when he was LG; sitting on existing commissions that oversee and drive the policy process on economics, environmental issues, veterans issues, and fairness and justice in our political system; and stand up new institutions (e.g. pilot projects on job creation, veterans mental health outreach and intake, and progress on efficiency and weatherization jobs) by working with for-profit and non-profit groups, including universities.
We can also launch advocacy campaigns to expose problems we’ve ignored for too long (such as the health care crisis in Southside and SW Virginia, where infant mortality and immunization rates are tragically low). I believe that a public advocate LG could start a public discussion on the legacy of “Old Virginny” that are best put to rest, such as Dillon’s Rule — which prevents progressive communities from taking action locally on their priorities — and the disenfranchisement rules from the Jim Crow era, which prevent 20-25% of African-American men from participating in our democracy.
I’ll look forward to talking about more specifics next time we talk and on the trail with voters. If anyone wants to contact my campaign, please email Christian Rickers at christian@michaelsigner.com, or me at mike@michaelsigner.com. Thanks!
Thanks, Mike, for taking the time to comment with us here.
A note to readers – Mike mentioned the words New Dominion above, and that jarred my memory. Our next New Dominion Magazine, on the streets on Tuesday, will include more from our interview with Mike.
The New Dominion Magazine can be found online at http://thenewdominion.com.