Commuting - Panniers, front vs rear on a fixed gear?

I've been running Jandd mini mountain panniers on the rear of my Raleigh One-Way for a few months now. I prefer them to the messenger bag I was using before, but they do make it difficult to lift the rear of the bike to reposition the cranks at stoplights. Can anybody who runs smallish panniers (as the only pair) on the front of their bike give me input on how they effect the bikes handling?

It depends on the geometry of the bike. Mine is pretty laid back like a touring bike. The other day I was having heel strike problems so I put my big panniers up front instead and rode in. Felt great. No problems at all!

I've got the jandd touring panniers on the back of my fixed... it does make it very hard to reposition, or carry over train tracks (I jump some tracks on my commute). I've been practicing trackstanding on off-positions so I don't have to foot down and reposition. Luckily I don't have to do stairs anymore. that was a PITA. I'd also be interested in hearing if anyone's running just fronts. I've seen one guy on the path running this setup, but he's always clipping along in the other direction, so I've never gotten to flag him down.

Small panniers on a low rider front rack affect handling less than on a higher front rack and in some situations less than on a rear rack.

josh,
i use both front (cannondale 1500 cc) panniers (Not "low-rider") and B-Nash mountain panniers (rear set, 2200 cc) with a Rackpack (B--nash, 750cc as well). no problem at stop-lights, stopping (pro VC)! any bike with gear can be an animal with it's own destination, including yours.
gain domain of your vehicle, you can do it!

Cool, I'm going to give them a shot. I will probably go with a Jandd lowrider front rack.