Ex-Kevorkian Lawyer to Run for Senate Seat in 2000

Geoffrey Fieger, the controversial attorney who unsuccessfully ran for Michigan governor in November, intends to challenge Republican Sen. Spencer Abraham in 2000, the Detroit News reported Sunday.

Fieger, 47, best known for defending assisted suicide campaigner Jack Kevorkian, told the paper that he had made up his mind to run against Abraham despite a lack of support from Democrats in his race for governor last year.

“I am going to run,” Fieger told the paper. “I’ll run as a Democrat as long as the Democrats don’t try to do what they did to me in the last election.”

The sharp-tongued attorney gained national recognition for defending Kevorkian and used that to run unsuccessfully against Republican Gov. John Engler. Fieger spent about $3.9 million of his own money on an unorthodox, often-disorganized campaign in an election he lost by about a 3-to-1 margin.

Fieger touted himself as a political outsider, but he was never able to overcome the high negative ratings he had among Michigan voters. He warned Democrats against “stabbing me in the back” again and threatened to run as an independent, the paper said.

Fieger said he would try to use President Clinton’s impeachment trial against Abraham if the senator votes to oust Clinton from office. However, a recent independent poll of the state’s voters found that 42% would not hold such a vote against Abraham.