By Greg Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

At first, Charlie Luken didn't want to talk about it.

Indeed, it took a written public-records request from The Cincinnati Enquirer to pry loose two letters the mayor had written to baseball Commissioner Bud Selig urging the reinstatement of Pete Rose.

But once Mr. Luken started talking, he found himself at the forefront of the "Give Pete a Chance" movement. And it won him his best shot at national recognition since the April 2001 riots happened on his watch.

At least 167 news organizations throughout the country and the world quoted him in stories, a Google search found. Mr. Luken turned down an invitation to appear on a national morning television show.

Canada's National Post observed in an editorial that Mr. Rose has always been a "cause celebre."

"The current campaign to have him reinstated is the most vigorous yet, with Charlie Luken, the Cincinnati mayor, leading the charge,"

Other sports pundits were not so forgiving.

Jim Litke, Associated Press: "It used to be that his strongest advocates were former teammates, a player like Joe Morgan, asking for nothing more than a review. Now it's people like Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken. He wants Rose not just to be reinstated, but reinstated in time to make April's opening of the Great American Ball Park, the Reds' new home. How noble is that?"

Paul Woody, Richmond Times-Dispatch: "It is not a coincidence that Luken's interest in Rose's reinstatement has become so keen in the winter before Cincinnati opens its new baseball park in April. "Is all this taking place because we live in a kinder, gentler age that permits Selig and Rose to come to terms with the situation? Or is it taking place because baseball is a business and Pete Rose is good for that business?"

Most blunt was this editorial in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel:

"Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken wants Rose available to help the Reds inaugurate a new stadium next season. `Whatever agreements were signed years ago are irrelevant today,' Luken told Selig.

"What an appalling statement. What doesn't he get about the word `lifetime'?"

Campaign trail: For most candidates for City Council, the Fraternal Order of Police seal of approval is the most coveted endorsement. So the seven members who voted against the police supervisors' contract last month may be getting off to a bad start on the 2003 campaign season.

"I can assure you that for some members of council this will carry more weight than for others," said FOP Vice President Keith Fangman. "Even though David Pepper and John Cranley and Paul Booth voted against the contract, we still have a very good working relationship with them. And I'll include Minette Cooper with that."

By process of elimination, that means David Crowley, Pat DeWine and Alicia Reece can probably count out ever getting another FOP endorsement.

Truth is, they probably wouldn't have gotten it anyway.

All in the family: Two of the nine members of the Southwestern Ohio Regional Transit Authority are now members of the Luken family.

Tom Luken, the former mayor and congressman, was appointed by his son, Mayor Charlie Luken.

John Luken, a lawyer at Dinsmore & Shohl, is Tom's nephew and Charlie's cousin.

John was appointed by Hamilton County Commissioner Tom Neyer, who erroneously reported that the SORTA Lukens were unrelated.

"He's my nephew, and I'm proud of it," Tom Luken said of John. "You'll have to check with him to see how he feels about it."

Correction: Courtis Fuller's campaign for mayor in 2001 was, to say the least, unconventional - defying traditional campaign strategies and roles. So last week's "Inside City Hall" column erred in referring to Jonathan Williams as Mr. Fuller's campaign manager. He was a "senior campaign adviser," Mr. Williams insists.

So noted.

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