Tor Ottar Karlsen is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party

Norwegian Labour Party

The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....

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He was born in Rolvsøy

Rolvsøy

Rolvsøy is an island and a former municipality in Østfold county, Norway.It was created by a split from Tune on 1 January 1911. At that time Rolvsøy had a population of 2,381. On 1 January 1994 Rolvsøy was incorporated into the municipality of Fredrikstad, the neighboring municipality to the south...

 and grew up in Åsgårdstrand

Åsgårdstrand

Åsgårdstrand is a city in Vestfold, Norway. It is also the name of a former independent municipality and a center of trade. The town is situated 10 km south of Horten, 10 km north of Tønsberg and 100 km south of Oslo by the west coast of the Oslofjord.From 2007, the town has had the...

. From 1980 to 1992 he was involved in local politics in Lier

Lier, Norway

Lier is an affluent municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lier. The municipality of Lier was established on 1 January 1838...

, and from 1992 to 1996 he chaired the county chapter of the Labour Party. From 1994 to 1996, during Brundtland's Third Cabinet, he was a political advisor in the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs.

Following the 1999 elections, Karlsen became the new county mayor (fylkesordfører) of Buskerud. He was re-elected in 2003

Norwegian county council election, 2003

The 2003 county council election was held on Monday September 15, 2003 for all eighteen county councils in Norway. The election was held parallel to the municipal council election.-Votes:-Seats:-County mayors:-Cabinets:...

, but stepped down before the 2007 election

Norwegian local elections, 2007

Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on September 10, 2007, with some areas polling on September 9 as well. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently...

. He is a member of the board in Southern Norway Regional Health Authority

Southern Norway Regional Health Authority

Southern Norway Regional Health Authority is a defunct Regional Health Authority that covered the counties of Aust-Agder, Buskerud, Telemark, Vest-Agder and Vestfold in Norway, as well as the national hospitals in Oslo...

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