Michael Signer | |
|---|---|
 Signer in 2010 | |
| Mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia | |
| In office January 4, 2016 –January 2, 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Satyendra Huja |
| Succeeded by | Nikuyah Walker |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Princeton University (B.A.) University of California,Berkeley (Ph.D.) University of Virginia (J.D.) |
| Profession | Author,attorney |
| Website | michaelsigner |
Michael Signer is an American attorney,author,and politician who served as mayor of Charlottesville,Virginia. [1] [2]
Signer is the son of Marjorie B. Signer,a communications director,and Robert Signer,a newspaper assignment editor. [3] He graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington,Virginia, [4] and magna cum laude from Princeton University,where he edited the Progressive Review. [5]
He earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California,Berkeley,and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law,where he was a Clerk at the Legal Aid Justice Center and Research Assistant to Professors A.E. Dick Howard and Michael Klarman. He was president of the Law Democrats,and co-founder of the UVA Chapter of the American Constitution Society. At UVA,he founded the UVA Coalition for Progress on Race,and went on to co-found the Center for the Study of Race and Law. [6]
Signer is the author of Cry Havoc:Charlottesville and American Democracy under Siege (PublicAffairs,2020). [7] The book is a first-person account of events before,during,and after the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville,Virginia in August 2017,as a microcosm of the challenges facing American democracy today. [8] NPR's "All Things Considered" featured an interview with Signer about "Cry Havoc," where Signer said the "deepest theme of what Charlottesville is about" was "do we have the ability to have debate on the hardest issues or is one faction basically going to terrorize another into submission?" and that "the consequence of stepping out of the arena,of giving up —that's what allows societies,democracies to tilt toward authoritarianism." [9]
Signer is the author of Becoming Madison:The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father (PublicAffairs,2015). [10] The book is about leadership and statesmanship that is also an intellectual and psychological biography of young James Madison and his rivalry with his nemesis Patrick Henry in the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. [11] Signer presented a public lecture on the book at the Library of Congress in 2016. [12]
He is also the author of Demagogue:The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies (St. Martin's Press,2009). [13] The book chronicles democracy's historic struggle with the problem of demagogues,examines how political thinkers have grappled with the demagogue problem,and argues that constitutionalism,a robust culture of democratic norms and values embraced by ordinary citizens,is the best antidote to demagogues. [14] He has written about the topic of demagoguery in connection with Donald Trump for The Washington Post, [15] and The Atlantic. [16] and been interviewed on the topic by NPR's Morning Edition [17] and WNYC's On the Media. [18]
He has published articles,essays,and book reviews in the New York Times, [19] The Washington Post, [20] Time Magazine, [21] University of Richmond Law Review, [22] The Washington Post, [23] The New Republic, [24] [25] and the Daily Beast. [26] [27]
In 2006,he wrote an article advocating for a doctrine of "exemplarism" as a version of progressive American exceptionalism,titled "City on a Hill" in the inaugural issue of Democracy:A Journal of Ideas. [28]
Signer is an executive and general counsel at a Virginia-based technology firm. [29] He served as counsel to then-Governor Mark Warner of Virginia. [30] He was founder and managing principal of Madison Law &Strategy Group,PLLC. [31] He previously served as co-chair of the Business Law Section of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association and chaired the Pro Bono Committee of the Young Lawyers Conference of the Virginia State Bar. [32]
A voting rights attorney,he was statewide director for the 2004 election protection program directed by the Democratic National Committee. In 2010,he traveled to Panjshir Province,Afghanistan,as a member of a USAID-sponsored mission to monitor Afghanistan's parliamentary elections. [33] He founded and co-chaired the New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia. [34]
In 2018,Signer founded Communities Overcoming Extremism,a project designed to increase capacity among both public and private sectors leaders for confronting extremism. [35]
Signer has served as chair of the Emergency Food Network,president of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association,and a member of the steering committee of the West Main Street Redevelopment Project in Charlottesville. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Center for National Policy. He is a principal and former board member of the Truman National Security Project. [32]
In the 2008 elections,Signer was foreign policy advisor to the John Edwards for President campaign. [36] He was later senior strategist on the 2008 Congressional campaign of Tom Perriello. Signer was senior policy advisor at the Center for American Progress,and later that year worked with John Podesta on President-Elect Barack Obama's State Department Transition Team. [37]
In 2009,Signer was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia,receiving 21% of the vote. [38]
From 2009 to 2013,Signer was an appointee by Governor Tim Kaine to Virginia's Board of Medicine. He was a member of the finance committee for Terry McAuliffe for governor,and later served as chair of Governor-elect McAuliffe's Transition Council on Homeland Security. [32] Earlier in his career,he was legislative aide to then-Delegate Creigh Deeds. Governor Terry McAuliffe appointed him to the Council on Virginia's Future. [39]
On January 4,2016,Charlottesville City Council elected Signer as the city's new mayor,succeeding outgoing mayor Satyendra Huja. [40] Signer took office the same evening. [40]
As mayor,Signer's four main priorities were innovation,infrastructure,governance,and equity. He led the city to rehabilitate the historic African-American Daughters of Zion cemetery with a special allocation of $80,000 from Council's Strategic Fund. [41]
He worked with the city council to create a Blue Ribbon Commission on Race,Memorials,and Public Spaces to address controversies over Confederate statues in Charlottesville. [42] Charlottesville also hired the city's first African-American police chief during Signer's tenure. [43]
In the wake of President Donald Trump's first announcement of the "Muslim Ban",Signer declared Charlottesville a "capital of the resistance" to Trump's administration. [44] He held a rally bringing together leaders including Khizr Khan,as well as local faith and University leaders,to declare opposition to religious intolerance and to propose support for immigrants and refugees. [44] Signer helped create Welcoming Greater Charlottesville, [45] and Council later enacted Signer's proposal to allocate $10,000 to the Legal Aid Justice Center to represent immigrants and helped create Welcoming Greater Charlottesville. [46]
Signer created a Mayor's Advisory Council on Innovation and Technology to link stakeholders in the Charlottesville technology sector. [47] The Council enacted Signer's proposal to double Charlottesville's spending on affordable housing,expanded the technology tax credit from five to seven years,increased public school investment by $2 million,and enacted protections for historic neighborhoods. [48] [49]
During Signer's tenure,the city council also created an Open Data policy, [50] and required agencies to register voters to vote online. [51]
In the wake of the violent "Unite the Right" event of August 2017,the city,under Signer's tenure,collaborated with Georgetown University's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection to successfully sue over a dozen paramilitary groups under a provision of the Virginia Constitution to prevent them from entering the city again. [52]
During Signer's tenure as mayor,Charlottesville was named by Entrepreneur as the #4 City in the U.S. for entrepreneurship. [53]
Signer received the annual Levenson Family Defender of Democracy Award from the Anti-Defamation League in 2017. [54] He is a member of the 2017 Class of Aspen Institute Rodel Fellows. [55] He was recognized by Forward Magazine in its "Forward 50" 2017 list of the 50 most influential Jewish leaders in America. [56] In 2018,he received the annual "Distinguished Alumnus" Award from the University of California Alumni Club of Washington,D.C. [57] In 2019,he was given the Courage in Political Leadership Award by the American Society for Yad Vashem, [58] the Rob DeBree and David O'Malley Award for Community Response to Hatred Award from the Matthew Shepard Foundation, [59] and the Jerold L. Solovy Freedom Award from the Anti-Defamation League Midwest. [60]
Signer is Jewish and lives in Charlottesville with his wife and their twin sons. [61] [62]
Charlottesville,colloquially known as C'ville,is an independent city in Virginia,United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County,which surrounds the city,though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Charlotte. At the 2020 census,the city's population was 46,553. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the City of Charlottesville with Albemarle County for statistical purposes,bringing its population to approximately 160,000. Charlottesville is the heart of the Charlottesville metropolitan area,which includes Albemarle,Buckingham,Fluvanna,Greene,and Nelson counties.
A demagogue,or rabble-rouser,is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites,especially through oratory that whips up the passions of crowds,appealing to emotion by scapegoating out-groups,exaggerating dangers to stoke fears,lying for emotional effect,or other rhetoric that tends to drown out reasoned deliberation and encourage fanatical popularity. Demagogues overturn established norms of political conduct,or promise or threaten to do so.
Timothy Michael Kaine is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Virginia since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party,he served as the 70th governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010,and as the 38th lieutenant governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006. Kaine was the Democratic nominee for vice president of the United States in the 2016 election as Hillary Clinton's running mate.
Robert Peter George is an American legal scholar,political philosopher,and public intellectual who serves as the sixth McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He lectures on constitutional interpretation,civil liberties,philosophy of law,and political philosophy.
The North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) is the affiliate of the Republican Party in North Carolina. Michael Whatley was the chair from 2019 until his election as national chair in March 2024. It is currently the state's dominant party,controlling half of North Carolina's U.S. House seats,both U.S. Senate seats,and a 3/5 supermajority control of both chambers of the state legislature,as well as a majority on the state supreme court.
Richard Bertrand Spencer is an American neo-Nazi,antisemitic conspiracy theorist,and white supremacist. Spencer claimed to have coined the term "alt-right" and was the most prominent advocate of the alt-right movement from its earliest days. He advocates for the reconstitution of the European Union into a white racial empire,which he believes will replace the diverse European ethnic identities with one homogeneous "White identity".
The Robert E. Lee Monument was an outdoor bronze equestrian statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and his horse Traveller located in Charlottesville,Virginia's Market Street Park in the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District. The statue was commissioned in 1917 and dedicated in 1924,and in 1997 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was removed on July 10,2021,and melted down in 2023.
The 2017 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 7,2017. Incumbent Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe was unable to run for re-election,as the Constitution of Virginia prohibits the officeholder from serving consecutive terms;he later ran unsuccessfully for a second term in 2021.
The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville,Virginia,from August 11 to 12,2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right,neo-Confederates,neo-fascists,white nationalists,neo-Nazis,Klansmen,and far-right militias. Some groups chanted racist and antisemitic slogans and carried weapons,Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols,the Valknut,Confederate battle flags,Deus vult crosses,flags,and other symbols of various past and present antisemitic and anti-Islamic groups. The organizers' stated goals included the unification of the American white nationalist movement and opposing the proposed removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville's former Lee Park. The rally sparked a national debate over Confederate iconography,racial violence,and white supremacy. The event had hundreds of participants.
Market Street Park,known as Lee Park until 2017,and as Emancipation Park from June 2017 to July 2018,is a public park in Charlottesville,Virginia.
Jason Eric Kessler is an American neo-Nazi,white supremacist,and antisemitic conspiracy theorist. Kessler organized the Unite the Right rally held in Charlottesville,Virginia,on August 11–12,2017,and the Unite the Right 2 rally held on August 12,2018.
James Orien Allsup is an American white supremacist,neo-Nazi,and former political commentator and podcaster.
On August 12,2017,DeAndre Harris,a Black man,was assaulted by six White men in an attack in a parking garage next to the police headquarters during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,Virginia,United States. Images and video of the assault captured by photojournalist Zach Roberts went viral and became a symbol of the enmity underlying the protest.
The Charlottesville car attack was a white supremacist terrorist attack perpetrated on August 12,2017,when James Alex Fields Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people peacefully protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,Virginia,killing one person and injuring 35. Fields,20,had previously espoused neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs,and drove from Ohio to attend the rally.
The "Unite the Right 2" rally was a white supremacist rally that occurred on August 12,2018,at Lafayette Square near the White House in Washington,D.C.,United States. It was organized by Jason Kessler to mark the first anniversary of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,Virginia,which ended in deadly violence and attracted both national and international attention.
Payne v. City of Charlottesville is a 2017 lawsuit opposing the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials in Charlottesville,Virginia.
The Blue Ribbon Commission on Race,Memorials and Public Spaces is a committee in Charlottesville,Virginia which the city established in 2016 to address the Charlottesville historic monument controversy.
The Charlottesville historic monument controversy is the public discussion on how Charlottesville should respond to protesters who complain that various local monuments are racist. The controversy began before 2016 when protest groups in the community asked the city council for the local removal of Confederate monuments and memorials. Other monuments became part of the controversy,including those of Thomas Jefferson because of his ownership of slaves and those of Lewis and Clark for their advocacy of white colonists over Native Americans.
Sines v. Kessler was a civil lawsuit against various organizers,promoters,and participants in the Unite the Right rally,a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville,Virginia in August 2017. The trial began in October 2021,and on November 23,the jury reached a mixed verdict in which they found various defendants liable on claims of civil conspiracy and race-based harassment or violence. They also found James A. Fields Jr.,the perpetrator of the car attack against counterprotesters at the rally,liable for assault and battery and intentional infliction of harm. Altogether,the jury awarded the plaintiffs more than $25 million in punitive and compensatory damages,though this was later reduced by the judge to $2.35 million.
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