State of Ohio employee ordered to check on Joe the plumber

Where, oh where is the truth?
The Columbus Dispatch is on this one.

Friday, October 31, 2008 10:21 PM
By Randy Ludlow
Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.
Niekamp didn’t know she just had checked on “Joe the Plumber,” who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain’s example in a debate of an average American.
The senior manager would not learn about “Joe” for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry.
The reason Niekamp said she was given for checking if there was a child-support case on Wurzelbacher does not match the reason given by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Director Helen Jones-Kelley said her agency checks people who are “thrust into the public spotlight,” amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance.
Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. “I’ve never done that before, I don’t know of anybody in my office who does that and I don’t remember anyone ever doing that,” she said today.

Read the rest at the link

Julie the records clerk charged with investigating Joe the plumber

From WNWO:

Toledo Police have confirmed that a TPD records clerk is accused of performing an illegal search of information related to ‘Joe the Plumber.’
Julie McConnell, has been charged with Gross Misconduct for allegedly making an improper inquiry into a state database in search of information pertaining to Samuel Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16.
Wurzelbacher came under the spotlight after being spoken about during the final presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.
The inquiry into Wurzelbacher’s record is a violation of department and state policy governing the use of the Law Enforcement Automated Data System. The clerk is under fire for making the inquiry for a non-law enforcement purpose.
McConnell was hired by the Toledo Police Department in April 1995 and assigned to the Investigative Services Bureau.
A discplinary hearing will be scheduled within the next ten days.

That makes two public officials investigating JtP.

Another Joe the plumber doubts Obama

I wonder how many plumbers are named Joe. The fellow we always call is named Tom, but I digress.
Here is another plumber named Joe who is backing McCain.

Shanks, an independent voter, said he’s supporting Republican Sen. John McCain, citing the official’s career experience in office as the deciding factor for him.
“I’d just feel more comfortable, confident and safe with McCain,” the plumber said. “McCain’s been there. Obama’s just not that experienced.”
Shanks likened the decision to a homeowner in need of a plumber – would you hire the guy who just got his trade license, he asked, or a seasoned professional?

What a concept.