A nationally-known figure is mounting a challenge for a House seat, and an aide to the incumbent is cracking wise? “It looks like Congressman Knollenberg is running against death and taxes,” Mike Brownfield, the congressman’s campaign manager, told The Detroit News today.

It’s funny because it’s about Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan doctor who took the euthanasia debate into his own hands by helping terminally ill people end their lives. What he did in one of his 130 cases got him 8 years in prison for second-degree murder.

About 10 months after his release, he decided to enter elective politics with a vow to bring “honesty and sincerity instead of corrupt government in Washington.” The move sparked national headlines and much local doubt, but he hit the pavement anyway to collect signatures for a petition to get on the ballot as an independent.

On Monday, a local elections official gave Mr. Kevorkian the green light, thus inserting him into a tight race between Mr. Knollenberg, the Republican incumbent, and Gary Peters, his Democratic rival. But the biggest name in the race was immediately labeled a “a very minor factor” by one political guru talking to The Detroit News.

Electoral prospects notwithstanding, more than 3,200 people in the district backed his candidacy. What kind of people signed on the dotted line for Jack Kevorkian? The Oakland Press found several enthusiastic supporters, but not many people who were tepid: the debate was divided between “wholehearted support and wholehearted condemnation.”

Those who passed on the chance to sign the petition did so in a friendly way, except for one man who reportedly threatened the 80-year-old candidate in June while covering a petition sheet with a big X.

In a test of his sway with the local police, Mr. Kevorkian obtained the man’s license plate number and filed a police report. Instead of springing into action, though, officers gave him a lecture on priorities. “We aren’t going to be doing anything with it,” a police official said. “It’s a minor crime. We have major crimes to investigate.”