Our May issue for the year 2002 reported the April 1 announcement by Hyundai Motor Co. that it would build a $1 billion assembly plant on a 1, 600-acre site just south of Montgomery.
Alabama edged out a final-round prospect in Kentucky, offering a $252.8 million incentives package, compared to Kentucky’s $123 million. Hyundai officials said the size of the bundle was not the deciding factor.
Neither did the Hyundai coup make a big difference, just six months down the line, in the race for governor. Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman was narrowly defeated, in his bid for a second term, by Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Riley.
Both candidates tried to get in on the Hyundai score, according to the May 2002 “Business & Politics” column by our political editor Bessie Ford. Riley joined a delegation of Alabama congressmen trekking to Korea. Siegelman and House Speaker Seth Hammett (D-Andalusia) paired up on a separate tout trip.
“Siegelman reportedly practiced a few words in Korean on the flight, ” Ford wrote. It might have impressed the Koreans, but it didn’t do much for Alabama voters, who historically have a deaf ear for the economy, noted Ford.
Siegelman’s re-election numbers sank during the last two years of his term, Ford also pointed out, in spite of an earlier blockbuster—a $580 million Honda plant announced four months after
Siegelman took office in January 1999.
By Chris McFadyen
