By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken says he's exploring a write-in campaign against embattled Hamilton County Prosecutor Michael K. Allen.

Luken confirmed his interest in the county's most powerful job Friday, the day after he paid a $275 fee with the Ohio Supreme Court to reactivate his law license.

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Allen, a Republican, has made daily headlines since Aug. 25, when he disclosed a 3 1/2-year affair with a subordinate. The next day, assistant prosecutor Rebecca Collins filed a lawsuit alleging that Allen used his position to coerce her into sex.

The controversy has led one judge to call on Allen to resign, and Allen has already been forced to step down as the regional chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign. But he's running unopposed in November for a second full term as prosecutor.

Luken, 53, a Democrat whose two tours at City Hall have already made him the longest-serving mayor in the city's history, said he had been asked to run by some judges - whom he would not name - and was seriously considering it. The deadline to file as a write-in candidate is Sept. 13. It takes only a form and $80 to file.

A write-in campaign by any candidate - but especially one as well-known as Luken - could have far-reaching consequences.

One effect: Because write-in votes must be counted by hand before they're read by ballot-reading machines, a write-in campaign could delay the counting of ballots in the presidential election until the late morning or afternoon of Nov. 3.

If Ohio's 20 electoral votes decide the race - as both campaigns suspect they might - the write-in campaign could bring national attention to Cincinnati.

If he won, Luken would have to step down from the mayor's office a year ahead of schedule, to be replaced by his vice mayor, Democratic Councilwoman Alicia Reece. Luken said Aug. 2 that he would not seek re-election for mayor in 2005.

Luken said a write-in campaign would give voters a choice.

"First of all, the prosecutor ought to be in the courtroom, but not as a defendant. And he's going to be spending a lot of time defending lawsuits," Luken said Allen. "Second, the issue of him suing the taxpayers for his attorney fees and damages is an issue that needs to be discussed and debated."

Allen and Republican Party Chairman Michael R. Barrett did not return calls seeking comment.

Luken mostly a politican

Luken worked as an intern in the city solicitor's office while at the University of Cincinnati's law school and helped to prosecute drunken drivers and write appellate briefs. He also had a small private practice but has spent most of his career as councilman, mayor, congressman and news anchor."I don't think anybody has more of a street-level sense of crime than I do," said Luken, who has repeatedly made crime the city's No. 1 priority.

Timothy M. Burke, the chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, said Luken "would be an excellent candidate," but he's still only one of many lawyers who have expressed an interest. He did not name the others.

While technically not a party decision - write-in candidates are independents by their nature - the party would likely help to sort out who should challenge Allen. The party's nominating committee had an emergency meeting Wednesday and plans to re-convene next week, Burke said.

"This is going to be tough enough in the first place. The last thing we need is two or three candidates competing against each other for write-in votes," he said.

The party endorsement could also give a significant boost to a write-in candidate by including his or her name on the party's sample ballot - with instructions on how to fill in the real ballot. And the party could use its armies of Kerry-Edwards volunteers to hand out pencils with the candidate's name on Election Day.

Ground rules in question

Burke, also chairman of the Board of Elections, said election officials and both parties have been scrambling to figure out the ground rules for a write-in campaign. Among the issues: the counting of misspelled names, the handling of ballots.

Punch-card ballots are separated along a perforated line, with the punch-hole portion detached from the stub before ballots are counted by machine. But the space for a write-in vote is on the stub itself, and vote-counters have to check by hand to make sure the voter didn't vote twice - once by punching a hole and again by writing in a name - before machine-counting the ballot.

For Luken, there are other considerations. At last report, he faces an incumbent with a $273,713 campaign war chest. And a significant part of Luken's resources would have to go toward explaining the write-in process.

In 2002, Long Beach, Calif., Mayor Beverly O'Neill used a write-in campaign to win a third term after a term-limit law prohibited her name from appearing on the ballot. And later that year, Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams won re-election as a write-in after election officials barred him from the ballot because of massive fraud on his nominating petitions.

The only successful write-in campaign on a bigger scale: The late Strom Thurmond, then a former governor, won a 1954 race for U.S. Senate in South Carolina.

'Daunting challenge'

"I know, I know. It's completely unprecedented," Luken said, admitting that he hasn't had time to think through the intricacies of a write-in campaign. "It is a daunting challenge, and a write-in candidacy can only be characterized as underdog in status. It is a singularly important office in Hamilton County, and it needs effective leadership. That is my thinking."

Ohio law requires a prosecutor to have a law license. While Luken hasn't practiced in years, he retained his license on "inactive" status.

"He's in good standing; there is no problem with his license," said Dennis Whalen, a spokesman for the Ohio Supreme Court.

Luken would have to take 12 hours of continuing legal education classes to catch up, but he'll have until the end of the year to do so. It won't be difficult.

"You can get six hours online in one night," said John C. Norwine, executive director of the Cincinnati Bar Association.

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Sharon Coolidge contributed to this report. E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com