Geoffrey Fieger, who campaigned with the flamboyant theatrics he used as Jack Kevorkian’s lawyer, won a narrow victory in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s governor.
“There’s a movement going on here, and that movement will turn out voters in unprecedented numbers,” Fieger said Wednesday at a news conference where he claimed victory. He renewed his attacks on Gov. John Engler, calling him “a serious threat to the people and the infrastructure of this state.”
Fieger, who has persuaded three juries to acquit the famous suicide doctor, trumpeted his lack of political experience as he made his first run for political office. He billed himself as an anti-establishment outsider who would protect civil rights, saying he is not in favor of assisted suicide or abortion but they are “inherently a personal decision.”
After spending more than $1 million of his own money, regularly insulting Engler and assailing other politicians, Fieger edged Larry Owen, a lawyer who had courted unions and party leaders.
With 97 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday morning, Fieger had 288,762 votes, or 41 percent, while Owen had 263,083 votes, or 37 percent. Former U.S. Labor Department official Doug Ross had 152,029 votes, or 21 percent.
Fieger was especially popular in heavily Democratic Detroit, even after Owen selected a black running mate from the Motor City.
“It’s Fieger time,” Fieger told supporters Tuesday. “The men in Lansing know something’s happening, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Engler? This is no time for the faint of heart.”
At Fieger’s election party in Detroit, Kevorkian said he had voted “for the third time in my life, I think.”
“He’s candid and forthright,” Kevorkian said. “Of all the politicians I know personally, he has more of the positive attributes.”
Engler is favored to win a third term because of the state’s strong economy and his nearly two dozen tax cuts.
Fieger proposes reducing the sales tax to 4 percent from 6 percent and reducing property taxes 5 percent across the board.
In other primaries:
- Kansas Gov. Bill Graves continued his expensive campaign for a second term after easily defeating a socially conservative challenger for the Republican nomination.
In the traditionally Republican state, Graves held a 3-to-1 advantage over former state GOP chairman David Miller in a recent poll but worried he could be hurt by low turnout among moderates. Graves spent a record $1.6 million on the campaign, largely to encourage his supporters to vote.
“I ran harder than at any time in my life,” Graves said.
Graves will face House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer in November’s general election.
- Also in Kansas, Sen. Sam Brownback, who was elected in 1996 to finish Bob Dole’s term, was unopposed on Tuesday’s ballot for the GOP nomination. The Democatic nominee is state Sen. Paul Feleciano, a 26-year veteran of the Legislature.
- In Missouri, Attorney General Jay Nixon won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by two-term Republican Christopher Bond.
Bond and Nixon easily won the senate primaries. Nixon, the top statewide vote-getter in 1996, has lost crucial support lately among blacks because of his efforts to reduce Missouri’s spending on court-ordered school desegregation.