Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson announced Tuesday he has pancreatic cancer, but intends to stay on the job while he fights the deadly illness.

The surprise announcement came at a midday news conference at county offices in Waterford.

"Alex Trebek has nothing on me," Patterson said, announcing he was diagnosed on March 15 with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, a little more than a week after the famed "Jeopardy" host revealed he had pancreatic cancer.

"I’m in treatment now. I will continue in treatment until my oncologist says I’m free to go," Patterson said. "There’s an 11 percent chance you can walk away, and I intend to be a part of that 11 percent."

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Patterson — long known as a tough, hard-drinking, wisecracking and often controversial politician — celebrated his 80th birthday in January and has been in ill health since a 2012 car crash. There has been growing speculation that he would not run for re-election next year.

"This is not a goodbye," said Patterson, who was wheeled into the room in a wheelchair. "This is just an announcement of a shitty deck of cards dealt me, that I intend to play out.

"I have every intention of coming back and finishing out the term.”

Patterson, at times, fought back tears as he met the eyes of family members, colleagues and friends in the audience.

Patterson said he had a twin brother who died of cancer and a sister who died of cancer.

“We’ve had a streak of cancer in our family,” Patterson said.

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Patterson won re-election to his seventh four-year term as county executive in 2016, beating Democrat Vicki Barnett, the former mayor of Farmington Hills, by 7 percentage points. But the county has continued to swing away from its conservative past, with Democrats taking control of the county board in last November's election for the first time in 40 years, as well as turning several legislative and congressional seats.

Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner, a Democrat from Huntington Woods, announced in early March that he was running for the county executive's job in 2020. County board chairman Dave Woodward, a Royal Oak Democrat, is also expected to run.

On the Republican side, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett have been mentioned as likely candidates if Patterson stepped down.

Meisner issued a statement saying he was "saddened to hear about Patterson's health.

"He has made serving Oakland County his life's work, and his leadership has impacted nearly every element of our region. I stand ready to help him steward the county in the coming months and wish him peace and comfort."

Woodward said in a statement that his "thoughts and prayers are with Brooks and his family as he faces this new challenge."

"Despite political differences over the years, like just about everyone in Oakland County, I respect L. Brooks Patterson's tremendous capacity to hang tough and give back as good as he gets. There's no doubt he will bring that trademark Brooks tenacity to this fight, and we are all with him on this one. As Brooks said, we are going to keep Oakland County the leader in the nation we are."

Oakland Circuit Court Judge James Alexander, a longtime friend, who was at the news conference, said Patterson has faced other tragedy his life, including the death of his son in a snowmobile accident. "I have every faith he’s going to fight through this too."

Alexander noted that the Democrats now control the county board and would pick Patterson's successor if he steps down before the end of his term next year. "And he’s going to fight like hell to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Alexander said.

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said he was shocked by the news.

"It's a sad story. It's not what you want to hear," Hackel said. "With anybody who has cancer, you're fighting for your life. He's always been a fighter."

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said he was saddened by the announcement from Patterson. They’ve been friends going back to the 1970s, when Bouchard was a young police officer and Patterson was county prosecutor.

“He’s been a loyal friend,” Bouchard said. “We’ve both lost brothers to cancer and we’ve been there for one another.”

Patterson first won political fame as Oakland County's hard-nosed prosecutor in the 1970s and '80s. He cemented his political power in 1992 when he won election to the county executive's office.

"I’ve had a great career here … in total I’ve got about 45 years here," he said at Tuesday's news conference.

"I loved both jobs, both county prosecutor and county executive. They are both great jobs anyone would die for — I shouldn’t say that," he said, eliciting audience laughter.

"I met some great people; we did some good things."

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Over the years, the unapologetically brash Patterson has triggered much controversy with his inflammatory remarks.

“Any time I talk about Detroit, it will not be positive. Therefore, I’m called a Detroit basher. The truth hurts, you know? Tough shit,” Patterson told the New Yorker in 2014.

In that same interview, while discussing Detroit’s financial troubles, he said: “I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and corn.’ ”

In 2018, when asked whether Oakland County would join a new regional business group, Patterson said: "Oh, hell no. I'd rather join the Klan." He later apologized.

Patterson was raised in middle-class Rosedale Park in Detroit. He attended the University of Detroit High School and received a law degree from U-D, but only after a stint in the Army and his discovery that teaching at Detroit Catholic Central wasn't enjoyable or lucrative enough for his taste. He also dropped what he said were his short-lived ambitions toward a career in fiction writing.

After he graduated from U-D, he joined a law firm and landed a six-month job in the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office. He decided he liked the job too much to leave, so he stayed.

He rocked boats with criticism of judges who didn't rule in his favor and of then-Prosecutor Thomas Plunkett's laxity on plea bargaining; Plunkett fired him in 1971.

But after he set up a private practice in Pontiac, Patterson stumbled onto a gold mine. It came in the form of Irene McCabe and her Pontiac homeowners group that he agreed to represent.

A federal judge in 1972 ordered tri-county busing for racial integration, and Patterson represented McCabe's group, renamed the National Action Group, in its fight against the order in an internationally publicized battle.

Soon national networks were interviewing Patterson. With the name recognition gained then, along with his attacks on Plunkett, Patterson beat Plunkett for county prosecutor in 1972.

The job suited Patterson's anti-crime stance. He raided porn shops and chastised the prison system when parolees committed more crime. He secretly sent his secretaries to collect welfare checks for children who didn't exist and then blasted the system that allowed such flaws. He sued judges over decisions he didn't like.

Patterson has never made apologies for his firebrand conservatism, no matter whom it might offend.

Free Press staff writers Christina Hall, Kathleen Gray, John Wisely and Bill Laitner contributed to this report.