Don Siegelman was the Governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003. Siegelman is the only person in the history of Alabama to be elected to serve in all four of the top statewide elected offices: Secretary of State, Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor and Governor. He served in Alabama politics for 26 years, winning his first election for the governorship with 57% of the vote, including over 90% of the African-American electorate.

Siegelman beat Republican Governor and one-time Democrat Fob James in 1998, and as early as several months after his inauguration, partisan post-election mobilization would result in federally-directed probes into his administration. A popular Democrat in a red state, Siegelman narrowly lost his job in 2002 when a couple of thousand votes suspiciously changed overnight.

As Governor, Siegelman's focus was on education and jobs. Siegelman fought for high school graduates to be able to go to college free to be paid for by a lottery. Karl Rove colleagues Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, and Grover Norquist funneled millions of dollars from neighboring casinos into Alabama to defeat Siegelman and his education lottery referendum. Siegelman started over 1000 new school construction projects. In three and a half years, he brought in Honda, Mercedes, Toyota, and Hyundai automobile manufacturing facilities, earning Siegelman recognition as one of the top 25 auto manufacturing CEOs in the world. Siegelman's term as Governor was also noted for his initiatives for children and the environment.

Siegelman ran for Governor again in 2006 but was defeated in the Democratic primary after being indicted, and later convicted, in a politically-motivated prosecution. He was sentenced to serve 7 years in federal prison.

On July 19, 2007, 44 US Attorney's petitioned Congress to investigate the political nature of the prosecution of Don Siegelman -- including the involvement of Karl Rove in targeting Siegelman. As a result of this petition, Congress issued a request for documents concerning the Siegelman case to the DOJ; and when they were not forthcoming a subpoena was issued. The documents have not yet been produced.

On October 10, 2007, the House Judiciary Committee released testimony in which Republican attorney Dana Jill Simpson alleged Karl Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman with help from two of Alabama's U.S. attorneys and that Republican Governor Rob Riley had named the judge who would eventually be assigned to the case. She also claimed Rob Riley told her the judge would "hang Don Siegelman".

After serving 9 months of his sentence, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved Siegelman's release from federal prison while he appeals his conviction in the corruption case. A Congressional investigation to examine the partisan misuse of the judiciary is ongoing.

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