Work hard, be honest and be collegial with those with whom you work. Those are traits Rick seeks to find in those he has hired in the City Attorney’s office. He also tries to exhibit those traits in his own conduct.
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Why the interest in politics and government? In the late 1950’s, Pfeiffer was a newspaper carrier for the last year of the Ohio State Journal and the first year of the Citizen Journal. He always read the papers’ articles that dealt with politics and government. His dad subscribed to Time magazine whose political pieces were always part of Rick’s reading interests. Maybe it was in his DNA. His paternal grandfather was a one-term Republican State Senator from Franklin County, while his maternal grandfather was active in Pike County Democratic politics.
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Pfeiffer first ran for office in 1980 when he became the Democratic candidate for the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney. He got in the race to run against incumbent George C. Smith, now a retired Federal Judge. Smith resigned that position shortly after Pfeiffer got his party’s nomination and was replaced by S. Michael Miller. Miller defeated Pfeiffer, 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent. Following that defeat, Pfeiffer was elected three times to the Ohio Senate, two times to the municipal bench and four times to the position he will leave at year’s end.
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While Rick will tell you that Columbus has been good to him and his family, he will be leaving his home city to become a resident of Charlotte, North Carolina after retirement. “That’s right. Janet and I have two daughters and one son. We figured it was the daughter in Charlotte and not the son or daughter in the Boston area who would look after us best as we age. And besides that, our one and only grandchild is with that daughter and her husband in Charlotte.”
Work hard, be honest and be collegial with those with whom you work. Those are traits Rick seeks to find in those he has hired in the City Attorney’s office. He also tries to exhibit those traits in his own conduct. “I suspect my ego will miss not seeing my name in the paper or my image on the TV screen,” says Pfeiffer. “But I will not miss the part of politics I never liked or was good at: asking people for campaign contributions.”
Mark Rutkus
Columbus City Attorney’s Office MKRutkus@columbus.gov
9 | Columbus Bar L aw yers Quarterly Fall 2017