Charles John Luken (born July 18, 1951, in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American politician of the Democratic party who was mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, and served in the Ohio's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. Luken, who is divorced, has three children. When Luken left office at the end of 2005, he was the longest serving mayor in Cincinnati's history with 12 years and one month of service in that role. Early career Luken earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame (Indiana) in 1973. He then entered law school at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, earning his degree in 1976, after which he started practicing law. Rejected by the Democratic party as a successor to his uncle, Jim Luken, Luken first ran for the council as an independent, losing the at-large race in 1979. Luken served on the Cincinnati city council from 1981 to 1984, before becoming mayor. Luken served as mayor of Cincinnati from 1984 to 1990. In 1985 Luken sponsored an amendment to the City's charter that made the leading vote-getter in the council race the City's mayor. Under that system Luken was elected mayor in 1985, 1987 and 1989. In 1990, Luken's father, Tom Luken, a U.S. representative from Ohio, decided to retire. Charlie then ran for a seat in Ohio's District 1 in the United States House of Representatives to replace his father. Luken won the election, defeating another former Cincinnati mayor, Ken Blackwell. Luken began serving in the U.S. House in 1991 (102nd Congress). He declined to run for re-election in 1992. Returning from Washington, Luken served as a news anchor at WLWT-TV from 1993 to 1999, the same Cincinnati station where ex-mayor Jerry Springer and Luken's father's onetime political opponent Tom Atkins had worked as news anchors. One of Luken's colleagues was future political opponent Courtis Fuller. In that role, Luken's newscasts at WLW-TV were awarded best newscast in Ohio on two occasions. Cincinnati's first "strong mayor" After a change in the Cincinnati city charter that made the mayoralty a separately-elected office and established a "strong-mayor" form of government, Luken returned to politics. In 1999, he again took over the office of mayor of Cincinnati. In his first return term as mayor, Luken had to deal with the 2001 Cincinnati Riots resulting from perceived racism on the part of city police, as evidenced