It looks like Joe Wurzelbacher — better known as “Joe the Plumber,” the guy who got famous for criticizing Obama on the campaign trail in 2008 — might actually run for Congress … if some Ohio Republicans have any say about it.
The Toledo Blade reports a “high-level interest in the national Republican Party” in a Wurzelbacher candidacy, though Joe himself has not said one way or the other if he’s running against U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur in 2012. The idea was first fielded by the Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans when they launched a campaign to draft him for office.
Kaptur has held her seat for Ohio’s 9th congressional district since 1983, sweeping 59 percent of the vote in 2010 in a district that voted heavily for Obama in 2008. But redistricting might give Wurzelbacher enough political juice leading into 2012 to make the difference, at least enough to make Jon Stainbrook, chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party, gush his own praises of the prospect. “He would make a fantastic candidate,” Stainbrook said. “He goes hunting with Sarah Palin. He’s friends with Ann Coulter. He’s got the ability to raise the money if he makes a decision to jump into the race.”
