Heck, if District Attorneys count, Harvey Dent was in the middle of prosecuting a trial when the defendant hurled acid in his face, scarring one side horribly and sending the former public official into madness and a career as Two-Face, enemy of Batman.
Tapioca Dextrin you beat me to it!
The secret idenity of the 1940s BLACK CONDOR was US senator Thomas Wright
IIRC
Matter Eater Lad was drafted as a senator on his home planet Bismol
Collossal Boy’s mother was briefly president of Earth.
Jake Gallows, Punisher 2099, was named Minister of Punishment when Doom took over the USA.
I think the Falcon was a mayor or member of the city council. I do have an issue in which he runs unsuccessfully. I just can’t remember whether he was running for re-election.
Re Doom
I can’t remember, did Doom overthrow the nobility, or were the nobles overthrown by revolutionaries who were then ousted by Doom? It’s also worth noting that the depiction of Doom has changed. He used to be a metal-clad boogeyman stand in for Castro, Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung. In (I think) the nineties, that changed. Victor Von Doom is still dictator for life, and rules with squads of robots. But, now he actually cares about the Latverians. His subjects may not have freedom of speech, but their healthcare and education systems are great.
Impossible Man ran unsuccessfully for leadership of Popuppia. Every Popuppian voted for himself. The tie was broken by a scavenger hunt. Though Impy retrieved some impressive items, he lost.
The Falcon was a US Congressman in the 70’s.
Let us not forget Reagan’s Raiders.
Pre-Crisis Lex Luthor ran a planet for a while, didn’t he? Where he was a hero?
The Sub-Mariner is King or Prince (ruler) of Atlantis.
The Black Panther is ruler of the African nation of Wakanda.
Charles Xavier was for a time Consort to Lilandra, Majestrix Shi’ar, but I don’t know if that carried with it any official power.
Moondragon once co-opted the will of an entire planet, setting herself up as ruler or high priestess of something.
Various heads of panteons (Zeus, Odin, etc.) appear with regularity as do the rulers of various other dimensions (“Satan,” Mephisto, Dormammu, Clea, to name a very few).
If alternate universes count:
In various What If? stories, Captain America was elected President, I think the Black Widow was once the head of state for the Soviet Union, the Invisible Girl once married the Sub-Mariner, becoming Queen of Atlantis, Doctor Strange became the only living creature in one universe (thus by default “ruling” it), the Avengers once functionally took over the planet by defeating every other super-human on Earth (including Popeye!) and Thor once became ruler of Asgard.
And let’s not forget, Principle Cranston was a U. S. senator, before… something… happened, and he took over as principle of PS 238.
Bruce Wayne was very briefly a (I think) senator, finishing the term of a man who had died in office. If I remember correctly, the previous senator had been bumped off for supporting a “crime bill” (details never revealed) that certain mobsters opposed. Wayne took the seat long enough to serve as bait for the killers, track them down as Batman, change back to Wayne, and vote yes at the last moment, then resigned. Late 70’s, I think.
Barbara Gordon was a Congresswoman around the same time.
As for President Luthor:
He’s presumed dead as a result of the building that collapsed on him in Superman/Batman #7. Pete Ross, now officially President of the United States, gives his big speech to that effect in Aquaman #15.
Magneto was ruler of Genosha at one point.
Not any more.
Apparently all those “I care about the healthcare and education of my citizens” things were propaganda/Potemkin village type things. The FF recently um…(avoiding spoilers since it was a really really rockin’ good arc) …had the opportunity to really search Latvaria since Doom was…away. And found: Nerve gas, nuclear missiles, gas chambers (ala Nazi “Showers” type), guillotines, torture chambers, secret police, mass graves, etc. (I may have added or missed a couple but you get the idea)
The citizens were living in raw terror and were forced to pretend to do the happy fat burgurmeister and his jolly peasants routine. But once they realized that Doom was…unlikely to come back…(still trying not to spoil) they ransacked his castle, destroying his "precious works of art’, defiling his stuff, with glee. They hated him. I’m kinda ok with that as the “He’s a psycho-tyrant (he kills people who look at him wrong) but the people love him anyway 'cause he makes the trains run on time” thing was just too bleak a picture of human nature for me.
I don’t think they can ever go back to the “Doom, misguided and stern, but not evil” after the last 20 or so issues. Waid, when he wants to, can write!
And, regarding Doom’s legitimacy on the throne, IIRC Doom’s family was the heriditary nobility who was driven out and hid amongst the Gypsies generations ago. Doom when he came to power, ousted the usurpers and took over (in his “I’m an iron-clad Stalin” mode–he was also a psycho during this period. He killed people for possibly damaging some artwork.) Around FF 200, some (really dull, annoying) rebels (with the help of the FF) kicked Doom out.
In an (excellent) story early in the Byrne run (240s or so), Doom ousted the rebels and it turned out that the rebels had no clue as to how to run a country–they didn’t even have running water. Doom was welcomed back with open arms by loving population (this didn’t jibe with past continuity, but who cares, it was a great story). This started the era of the “Ok, he hates the FF, but he’s really not all that bad of a guy, deep down” stories that Byrne handled fairly well but other writers, well…didn’t. I didn’t like the concept but Byrne’s rendition was so complex and interesting that I didn’t care.
Somewhere along the line were a couple of other stories: a little kid (with Doom’s mind imprinted on the kid’s brain) took over Latvaria as one of Doom’s contingency plans went awry and this story lasted for far too long but eventually the real Doom took back over. Just after is a story that must be ignored (despite it being a great story) that said that every Doom appearance following FF #5 (ca 1961) was a Doombot. ALL of them. Interesting, but…no.
Anyway that pretty much brings us current to the (wonderful) Waid arc.
Fenris
Lexor. And his wife had the name “Adora” (which, even at age 8, I thought was kinda dumb)
Old King Cole is the figurehead mayor of Fabletown, but Snow White, his deputy, really runs the show.
Green Arrow was running for Mayor of Central City. Bruce talked him out of it by convincing him that two guys with blond goatees who were public figures might arouse suspicion about his secret identity.
Professor X is running things there as of Excaliber vol. 2, #1.
I believe Wonder Woman is an ambassador to the U.N.
I’m upset by this. I much preferred the fist of iron, ego the size of Galactus’ ship, but actually cares about his people Victor Von Doom. I loved Doom 2099.
I’ve got mixed feelings…Byrine did the “cares about his people…maybe in the way that one cares about pets, but still” stuff very well, but A) really, IMO, only John Byrne could do it well, B) As I mentioned, I don’t like the fact that Doom’s subjects fawned over him, given his behavior (accepted him stoically as “Better than the alternative”–fine, but loving him?) and most important C) The “warm-n-fuzzy” Doom (so to speak! :p) could not mesh with the earlier 20 years worth of appearances* IMO.
Plus, as stated the Waid stories are great. Just like I didn’t care when Byrne revamped Doom 'cause he did it so well, I don’t mind that Waid “un-revamped” Doom given the quality of the story. But of the two, Waid’s is A) a far scarier villian (Byrne’s was more complex) and B) Waid’s works within the context of the first 200+ issues and Byrne’s stuff (the Latvarians did act as though they liked him: he’d have had them tortured if they didn’t. And he did care for them. But like sometimes you have to put an untameable pet down for it’s own good…)
Seriously, the first Waid arc or two is out in TPb. Give it a shot. In part, it’s so good that it got a very powerful Editor-in-Chief fired (so says the rumor)
Fenris
*Ditto Magneto–I love the mellower Holocaust surviver who cares about his people version, but it can’t be reconcilled with all the time Magneto ran around robbing banks or trying to kill children with no second thought.
Ditto to that. It was kind of intersting* to see a supervillain tyrant who was actually competant at running a country. The whole “Lawful Evil”/Shades of Gray angle.
I dunno…these are comics we’re talking about, here—anything can be retconned away, with a little work and the will to do it. There’s hope for “warm-and-fuzzy Doom” yet. 
Ranchoth
*You know what would have been really interesting, though…having the FF discover that one of the “hero” heads of state was actually a genocidal tyrant. (I didn’t say it would be good, or workable within canon. Just “interesting.” ;D)
Even the “Stalin in Armor” version was competent…much meaner, granted but the one thing any decent incarnation of Doom has never been is incompetent! 
I dunno— given that in the last 20 or so issues:
[ul]
[li]He skinned his one childhood love and turned her carcass into leather to make a non-metal mask (incidentally giving her soul to demons in return for FAR more magical power–he’s Dr. Strange level now, easily)[/li]
[li]He sent Franklin to Hell. As such. Demons tortured and abused Franklin for 3/4 issues and Franklin’s still recovering. [/li]
[li]He turned Valaria into his familiar[/li]
[li]He scarred Reed’s face badly[/li]
[li]His dungons contained weapons of mass-destruction[/li]
[li]He had abbitoirs and mass graves of his subjects[/li]
[li]His subects revealed that they were terrified of him all along regardless of how they might have acted[/li]
[li]He had a secret police that made the KGB and the SS look like crossing guards[/li]
[li]He “possessed” Sue and made her kill who-knows-how-many American (or UN) soldiers–good guys.[/li]
[li]He killed Ben*[/li][/ul]
I dunno how they could undo it. Even if some later writer says “It was a Doombot run amok” or something (since Doombots don’t have souls, I don’t see how that’s possible, but even if), Doom still had the abitoirs and the mass-graves and the terrified citizens to account for.
Fenris
- This’ll spoil the big climax to the arc. Read at your risk Granted, Ben gets better, but still. Doom killed him. Dead. Ben went to the afterlife.
Not to hijack this thread, but IMO the problem with Doom-as-evil-gas-chamber-bastich-who-makes-Hitler-look-tame approach (some of the stuff in that spoiler box were creepy) is that it’s just so beneath him. Far as I can recall, ol’ Vic Von Doom’s always been looking down his nose at lesser mortals – his conquests were less about power and more about simply setting things right, that he was the best-qualified person to rule.
To say that Doom had to gas dissidents is just such a brute-force and ineffective approach to the problems of governing. I can just hear him now, sneering at such an approach – “Rule by terror? Such crass methods may work for mere amateurs, but my methods are far more efficient and orderly. Why rule by fear when it is easier, by far, to make them love me?”
IIRC the Invisible Kid (or Boy or whatever he was called) became President of Earth too.