18 Facts About Jim Doyle

1.

Jim Doyle served as Wisconsin's Attorney General for 12 years before becoming Governor.

2.

Jim Doyle was born on November 23,1945, in Washington, DC, the son of Ruth Bachhuber Doyle and James Edward Doyle, who were influential leaders of the post-1946 Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

3.

Ruth Bachhuber Jim Doyle was the first woman from Dane County to be elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1948.

4.

In 1972, Jim Doyle earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

5.

Jim Doyle then moved to the Navajo Indian Reservation in Chinle, Arizona, where he worked as an attorney in a federal legal services office.

6.

In 1975, Jim Doyle returned to Madison, Wisconsin, and served three terms as Dane County District Attorney, from 1977 to 1982.

7.

Jim Doyle was elected Wisconsin Attorney General in 1990, and reelected in 1994 and 1998.

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8.

Jim Doyle gained recognition as a result of several successful lawsuits against tobacco companies in the state.

9.

Jim Doyle ran against Republican Scott McCallum, the former lieutenant governor who had assumed the office of governor in 2001 after Tommy Thompson left to become Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush administration.

10.

On election day, Jim Doyle defeated McCallum by over four percent of the vote, becoming the first Democratic governor in the state since Anthony Earl was defeated in 1986.

11.

Jim Doyle was sworn in on January 6,2003 at the State Capitol in Madison.

12.

Jim Doyle raised about $500,000 for a campaign fund in the first half of 2007, leading political analysts to think he would have been financially ready to run for a third-term as governor.

13.

However, on August 17,2009, Jim Doyle announced that he would not seek a third term.

14.

Jim Doyle's stated priorities were investing in public schools, including the University of Wisconsin System; lowering property taxes; regional economic development; transportation reform; and funding of stem cell research.

15.

On January 2,2009, Jim Doyle joined the governors of four states in urging the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country's 50 state governments to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggled with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

16.

On May 19,2009, Jim Doyle proposed a 75-cent-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax, an "assessment" against oil companies to help pay for road improvements, imposition of sales tax on music downloads and cell phone ringtones, and a 1 percent hike in the state income tax for individuals earning above $300,000 a year.

17.

Jim Doyle served as chair of the Midwestern Governors Association in 2007.

18.

In October 2007, the Republican-led Assembly, Democratic-controlled Senate, and Governor Jim Doyle passed a balanced budget that approved transferring $200 million from a medical malpractice fund to the Medical assistance trust fund.