Kasich picks Lanzinger to fill court vacancy

9/11/2013

COLUMBUS — Republican Josh Lanzinger will be able to run as Toledo Municipal Court Judge Lanzinger on Nov. 5 now that Gov. John Kasich has picked him for immediate appointment to the vacancy.

Currently an assistant attorney general primarily handling workers’ compensation cases, Mr. Lanzinger, 39, of West Toledo, will replace Judge Michael Goulding on the bench. Judge Goulding was recently appointed to Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

The son of Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith Lanzinger had already captured the county Republican Party’s endorsement in the race. He ran two years ago in an unsuccessful bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Judge C. Allen McConnell.

Mr. Lanzinger will square off on Nov. 5 against attorneys Kenneth Phillips, also a Republican, and Gretchen DeBacker, a Democrat, to hold on to the Goulding seat. Ohio judicial candidates appear on the general election ballot without party labels.

“If you look at the makeup of municipal court currently, the voters in the city of Toledo overwhelmingly prefer Republican judges…,” said county Republican Chairman Jon Stainbrook. “It’s going to be a plus that he will have the ability to run with the word ‘judge’ in front of his name and to campaign in his robe for, give or take a few days, the next two months.”

Mr. Lanzinger, an Iraq War veteran, earned his law degree in 1997 from the University of Toledo and his bachelor’s degree in philosophy three years earlier from the University of Dayton.