Just re-elected judge may run for another job

11/22/2011

Judge Robert Christiansen, fresh off his re-election to Toledo Municipal Court, has taken out petitions to run for an open seat on the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals.

Also taking out blank petitions from the Lucas County Board of Elections was fellow Republican James Jensen of the Lucas County Common Pleas Court. Judge Jensen is also early in an elected term, having been re-elected to his seat in 2010.

The deadline to file the signature petitions is Dec. 7, and other candidates are likely to surface by then. The seat is for a six-year term.

Incumbent Judge Peter Handwork, a Republican, is prohibited because of his age from seeking re-election.

Judge Christiansen, 63, was re-elected with 58 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan election Nov. 8 against Democrat John Coble, according to the unofficial count.

“Sometimes when a window opens up you’ve got to step through it even though the timing might not be quite right,” Judge Christiansen said Monday. “You don’t know when the window’s going to open again.”

He said he is still making up his mind whether to run, but said he did not believe voters would resent him for seeking the appeals court seat so soon after winning the municipal court seat.

“I think the public likes the way that I run my courtroom and I think that is why I got a high percentage in this election. If I can take my ideas about victims’ rights and women’s rights and so forth to the appellate court level that sets the tone for eight counties, I think the public says, ‘go for it, we want you to set that tone for the eight counties,’?” Judge Christiansen said.

Judge Christiansen, of West Toledo, ran for the appeals court in 2004 and 2010. In 2004, he was defeated in the general election by the late William Skow, a Democrat. In 2010, he was defeated in the Republican primary by Stephen Yarbrough who went on to win the election.

The court hears appeals from common pleas, juvenile, and municipal courts in Lucas, Erie, Fulton, Huron, Ottawa, Sandusky, Williams, and Wood counties.

Judge Christiansen was elected to the municipal bench in 2005 after serving 22 years on Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Jensen was appointed to Lucas County Common Pleas Court in 1995 and elected in 1996, and re-elected against an opponent in 2004.

Contact Tom Troy at: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058.