Charlie Luken

Luken graduated from Purcell High School in Cincinnati, then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1973. He earned a degree at the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1976, and began the practice of law.

Rejected by the Democratic Party as a successor to his uncle, Jim Luken, Charlie Luken first ran for the Cincinnati City Council as an independent, losing the at-large race in 1979. He won election to the Council in 1981, however, and became mayor (at that time, the Council chairman) in 1984.

Luken served as mayor of Cincinnati from 1984 to 1990. In 1985 he sponsored an amendment to the city charter that made the leading vote-getter in a regular Council election the mayor. Under that system Luken was elected mayor in 1985, 1987 and 1989.

During the 1984 Democratic presidential primaries, Luken endorsed the candidacy of former vice president Walter Mondale.

In 1990, Luken's father, Tom Luken, a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio, decided to retire. Charlie Luken then ran to succeed his father in Ohio's District 1. He won the seat, defeating another former Cincinnati mayor, Ken Blackwell, but declined to run for re-election in 1992.

Returning from Washington, Luken worked as a news anchor at WLWT-TV from 1993 to 1999, the same Cincinnati station where ex-mayor Jerry Springer and Tom Atkins, a onetime political opponent of Luken's father, had worked as news anchors. In that role, Luken's newscasts at WLWT were awarded best newscast in Ohio on two occasions.

Luken, who is divorced, has three children.

In August 2004, Luken announced he would not seek re-election to another term as mayor. In September 2004, he briefly flirted with running for Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney as a write-in candidate because scandal-plagued incumbent Michael K. Allen had no opponent. Luken reactivated his dormant law license but ultimately decided not to run.

The 2005 primary race for his successor featured first-term councilman David Pepper (son of John Pepper, former CEO of Procter & Gamble) and Mark Mallory, a member of the state Senate. With the previous election following the city's racial divides so closely, the race of the candidates — Pepper is white, Mallory is black — was considered significant. Both candidates were Democrats outside of local politics. Mallory was elected as Luken's successor on November 8, 2005.