One of Northern Kentucky's long-standing political figures, Joe Meyer, has ousted incumbent Sherry Carran as the mayor of Northern Kentucky's largest city.
Meyer won with 56 percent to 43 percent for Carran, who was trying for a second term.
It has been a hard fought contest between two politicians with very different visions for Northern Kentucky's largest city.
Carran's background is not in politics, but architecture. She and her husband live in the Botany Hills section of Covington in a home she helped designed and build.
Before they moved to Covington in 1990, she and her husband were involved in the revitalization of 14 Greenup Street, a historic building that had once been the office and home of John W. Stevenson, a 19th century attorney who served in the U.S. Senate.
Her political career began in 2007, after being elected to the Covington City Commission. She served three two-year terms as a commissioner before being elected the city's first female mayor in 2013.
People in Covington often described Carran's campaign theme as "stay the course," while Meyer's was described as an agenda for change.
Most of Meyer's adult life has been devoted to elective office or government jobs.
His family has been in Covington for four generations; and he served in the legislative and executive branches of state government for more than 30 years.
He was first elected to office in 1982 when he became a state representative. He was in that body through 1988, where he served as chair of the House Cities Committee.
The next year, he was elected to the state senate, where he spent seven years.
After leaving the Senate, he was a senior policy advisor to Gov.. Steve Beshear and State Auditor Crit Luallen. In 2009, Beshear made him a cabinet member, appointing him secretary of the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. He stayed in that job until 2013.
He surprised many earlier this year when he announced he was going to challenge Carran for the mayor's job.
