Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken spent Nov. 6 in a familiar role, the star of the 11 o’clock news. The former TV news anchor was gracious on camera and talked about working to unite the city.
“We have to reach out,” he said in various interviews. “One of our big challenges is to reach out to people and be inclusive.”
But off camera, on the night of his biggest political victory, Luken was every bit as biting as during the campaign. In a crowded room at the Hamilton County Board of Elections, he again complained about a CityBeat headline from 11 months ago (see Roxanne Is Gone, So Why Is Our Mayor Still Dickless? issue of Dec. 7-13, 2000). Luken has repeatedly complained the headline “makes fun of my anatomy” although he can’t recall the subject of the actual story or the headline’s context.
Luken renewed the complaint on election night. He also complained about the paper’s endorsement of Charter Committee candidate Courtis Fuller.
“I’m still waiting for my endorsement,” Luken said.
Luken, a Democrat, now becomes the city’s first directly elected mayor in seven decades. He received 47,755 votes, compared to 38,494 for Fuller, a margin of about 55-45 percent, according to final unofficial tallies by the board of elections.
But the real results of the election — the effect it will have on the way Cincinnati is run — are yet to be seen.
When Luken is sworn in Dec. 1, he will be Cincinnati’s first “strong mayor” in 76 years; the system is new to the city and has yet to be clearly defined. The mayor will serve for a term of four years instead of two. In addition to picking the vice mayor (he’s already selected Alicia Reece), he will choose the chairs of city council committees, be able to veto ordinances passed by council and can hire and fire a city manager as long as most of the nine council members agree.
Luken said the challenges facing the city now are working with a budget deficit, picking a new city manager and working on race relations.
“They’re all huge issues,” he said.
During his campaign, Luken said he would support a housing court, more recruitment of minority officers for the police force, restrictions on new low-income housing in the city and an arts committee on city council, among other platform positions.
Then God said, ‘Finish Second’
Fuller, a registered Democrat, jumped into the mayor’s race at the last minute as the Charter Committee’s candidate. The day the Hamilton County Republican Party announced it would not field a candidate for mayor, Fuller quit his job as news anchor for WLWT-TV and moved into the city limits. In less than 24 hours, Fuller collected more than 4,000 signatures on his candidacy petition — eight times as many as he needed.
When the city held its first-ever runoff election for mayor Sept. 11, Fuller beat Luken by more than 15 percent in a four-way race. The runoff eliminated two independent candidates.
At a gathering with supporters at Swifton Commons on election night, Fuller said the problems facing the city will not go away without work.
“Clearly the racial divide in this city is still a priority,” he said. “It does not go away simply because election night is over.”
Fuller said the race was fair and he was happy with the campaign he ran.
“I don’t think we really took any personal shots at each other,” he said. “I don’t walk away with my head hung.”
Although some told him to run his campaign other ways, Fuller said he’s glad he followed his heart.
“When I was quiet, it was because God said, ‘Be quiet,’ ” Fuller said. “When I talked, it was because God said, ‘Talk.’ ”
Fuller said he never worried about the outcome but instead ran his campaign on faith.
“We’ve made a strong statement,” he said. “I think that I saw a lot of love from people in this city. It was very humbling.”
Fuller said he will contemplate a return to journalism. ©
This article appears in Nov 7-13, 2001.
