Luken dynasty now falls to third generation

Mayor Charlie Luken talks to daughter Lauren and son Sam the night of his election as mayor in 1999. (Photo by Steven M. Herppich/The Cincinnati Enquirer)

In 1971, Thomas A. Luken became the city's first Democratic mayor in decades, then used the Watergate scandal to run for and win a seat in Congress -- a seat he later lost but then regained against stiff GOP opposition.

His brother, James T. Luken, was a chain-smoking old union boss who rose to international prominence when, as head of the Milk and Ice Cream Drivers and Dairy Workers Local 98, he rebuffed a takeover attempt by the Teamsters' Jimmy Hoffa. James Luken, too, became mayor.

Then, as Jim Luken was dying of cancer, nephew Charlie Luken -- Tom's son -- ran for City Council, beginning a political career that would later lead him to become the longest-serving mayor in the city's history -- a stint that ends today.

The Luken clan has had an incredible run in Cincinnati politics. So what's next? Barring a third act for 54-year-old Charlie Luken, the dynasty might fall to son Sam Luken.

Sam got his start in politics at an early age, when one of Bill Cunningham's favorite schticks on WLW was to call the then-Mayor Charlie Luken's Mount Airy home at bedtime and try to get Sam, age 11, to say something incriminating about his dad.

At a reception at the Queen City Club last month, no one worked the room of politicos as diligently as Sam, who shook hands with every CEO, congressman, union president and friend of his father's who walked in the door.

Don't expect any imminent announcements. Sam Luken, 28, is registered to vote in Franklin County, where he works in Columbus as an energy broker for American Electric Power. But no less a judge of political talent than Charlie Luken suspects that Sam could make his mark the family business.

"He's got it all. He's got his mother's charm and his father's guile. He has a combination of skills that gives him much more potential than I had," Charlie said last week.

But he said the choice is up to his children. "I'd be wonderfully proud," Charlie said. "It's a choice they shouldn't be pushed into."