Certainly, he said, it was a dark day in our nation's history.

        But Sept. 11 was also the highest point in Mr. Fuller's political career.

        It was the day Mr. Fuller, a former television reporter and political novice, clobbered Mayor Charlie Luken in the city's first-ever non-partisan mayoral primary. He defeated the incumbent 54 percent to 38 percent.

        It may have been the wake-up call Mr. Luken needed, and it gave voters the opportunity to express to Mr. Luken their frustration with the way the city handled the April riots.

        “I got whopped,” Mr. Luken said sheepishly last Sept. 12. Two months later, voters elected him mayor after all.

        Bill Brodberger, an independent candidate who came in third in that Sept. 11 primary with 6 percent, put it this way: “The voters took Charlie to the woodshed. They whacked him across the nose, and then they put away the newspaper and told him to learn his lesson.”

        Mr. Fuller is philosophical about his loss in November. He said he hasn't lost any sleep analyzing how his 16-point lead became a 10-point loss two months later. “It was meant to happen exactly the way it did,” he said.

        Not that he wouldn't have done things differently. He would have put his campaign office in Bond Hill or College Hill, rather than at Fourth and Vine streets downtown. He would have paid more attention to the details, like yard signs and scheduling. And he would have had better relations with the press.

        Always quick to make a sports analogy (especially with teams from his native Pittsburgh), he said: “I campaigned last October like the Steelers played the Patriots on Monday night.

        “It was good for me to run against someone like the mayor, who has so much experience and is such a skilled politician,” he said. “It was Politics 101 for me.”

        But Mr. Fuller also likes to think Mr. Luken learned some things from him. Some of the keystones of Mr. Fuller's platform — an emphasis on the arts, a neighborhood development strategy and a closer relationship with the Board of Education — have since been incorporated into the mayor's — and council's — agenda.

        Will he run again? And when is he going back to Channel 5? Mr. Fuller said he gets asked those two questions every day.

        He said he hasn't decided to run, and no job offer has been forthcoming from WLWT. He said he's happy hosting a talk show on WCIN-AM (1480) from 10 a.m. to noon weekdays.

        Whatever his future, Mr. Fuller said he'll have to make a decision in the next six months or so.

        “If I go back into television, that's where I'm going to stay. And if I go into the political ring, that's going to be my future,” he said. “I'll be the first to tell you that I don't think it's healthy to bounce back and forth.”

        If Mr. Fuller does run, many political observers believe he can win the seat being vacated by the term-limited Minette Cooper.

        Mr. Luken is one of them. He met with Mr. Fuller last week, and offered to help Mr. Fuller if he wanted to seek the Democratic Party endorsement for City Council.

        True story: City Council members say their two-day retreat last weekend will help them work together to put out the daily fires at City Hall, so they can move on to other important issues.

        As evidence, Councilman David Pepper tells this story:

        Mr. Pepper and Jim Tarbell were driving back from Hueston Woods Saturday afternoon when they spotted a house fire on U.S. 27 south of Millville. Armed with a garden hose and a cell phone, the two contained the fire for 20 minutes until volunteer firefighters arrived.

        Your tax money: Tuesday's plea deal by Lt. Col. Ron Twitty did not include any agreement to pay for the $3,337 in damage to his city-issued 2001 Ford Taurus.

        That means taxpayers will pay for the damage, City Manager Valerie Lemmie said.

        City Hall reporter Gregory Korte can be reached at 768-8391 or e-mail gkorte@enquirer.com.

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