Former Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb is ready to let her light shine again.

Cobb was elected the first woman chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2006 with memorable commercials that featured her playing "This Little Light of Mine" on piano at Evergreen First United Methodist Church. Now she says she's running as a Democrat for governor in 2018.

"I'm going to be the next governor of Alabama," Cobb said in an interview Tuesday with AL.com. "We're not going to be complacent anymore."

Cobb, chief justice from 2007-11, was one of the last Democrats elected to statewide office in Alabama. (Former Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley was elected in 2008 and served 2009-2013 as president of the Alabama Public Service Commission.) Since 2013, Republicans have held all statewide offices.

But Cobb said the scandals involving Gov. Robert Bentley, who resigned, and Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard and Chief Justice Roy Moore, who were removed from office, has set the stage for a Democrat to be elected.

"Republicans have given us a trifecta," she said. "It's time to have a governor who's more concerned about people than party. I do believe in taking care of the least, the last, the lost. People are tired of the partisanship. There is just a yearning for creative, unselfish leadership."

Cobb, 61, grew up in Evergreen and attended the University of Alabama, where she got a bachelor's degree in history and then a law degree in 1981. She was appointed a judge in Conecuh County District Court, elected in 1982 and re-elected in 1988. Her house was firebombed in 1989 by a man who had appeared in her court and was later committed to a mental facility.

She took trial judge assignments in as many as 40 counties and from 1995-2007 served as a judge on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

Cobb prided herself on activism for reforming the juvenile justice system in Alabama, helping to found Alabama Children First, a non-profit group created to promote programs to improve the lives of children in the state.

Cobb said she retired as chief justice primarily to care for her ailing mother, who died on Feb. 6, 2013. "I made the right decision," she said. "My mother was dying."

She also was vocal in her complaints about the cost of campaigning for the state Supreme Court. She raised $2.6 million in the 2006 campaign, she said, while her Republican opponent Drayton Nabers Jr., raised more than $5.5 million in one of the most expensive judicial races in the nation.

"There was no way I could raise the money and do the job," Cobb said.

The gubernatorial primaries will be June 5, 2018. Some candidates have already entered the race and could begin raising money starting this month.

Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, said she is not ready to announce whether she's running for a full term. Ivey was lieutenant governor and became governor when Bentley resigned on April 10.

Announced candidates for next year's Republican nomination are Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle; Jefferson County Commissioner David Carrington; Birmingham Evangelist Scott Dawson; Birmingham businessman Josh Jones; correctional officer Stacy George; and state Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan. Public Service Commission President Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh has formed a committee to raise money but has not made a formal announcement.

You can see some of Cobb's campaign commercials below, including her famous "This Little Light of Mine" spot.