Jim Doyle

JIM DOYLE was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a graduate of University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1972. Doyle and his wife, Jessica, served in the Peace Corps as teachers in Africa. He also worked as an attorney in a federal legal services office on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Chinle, Arizona. Doyle served three terms as Dane County district attorney from 1977 to 1982, and then built his own private law practice, handling a wide range of civil and criminal cases. Doyle was elected Wisconsin attorney general in 1990, and reelected in 1994 and 1998. During his 12 years as attorney general, Doyle distinguished himself by fighting for people and fighting for change. He was a national leader in the fight to improve public health through his successful lawsuit against the tobacco industry. He successfully fought to restore public confidence in criminal sentencing, make schools and streets safer, protect consumers from fraud, and prosecute environmental polluters. Doyle was elected Governor of Wisconsin in 2002, inheriting a $3.2 billion deficit. As Governor, he's balanced two straight budgets without raising taxes, added more than 170,000 new jobs for Wisconsin workers, and increased the state's exports by more than 50 percent, while also protecting the state's education system. Doyle was reelected in 2006, making him the first Democratic Governor in Wisconsin to be reelected in 32 years.