Numbers have never been Samuel Wurzelbacher's strong suit. Sam—aka Joe the Plumber—spun a tale when he first sprang on to the political scene in his 2008 encounter with Barack Obama, claiming he planned to "buy a company that makes 250 to 280 thousand dollars a year." That, of course, never happened—or he just didn't know what he was talking about. Then, when he finally decided to run for Congress this election cycle, he picked a district that his fellow Republicans made deliberately unwinnable for their own team—a Democratic vote sink that likely gave President Obama north of 60% of the vote in 2008. Well, Joe's never been the sharpest wrench in the toolbox.
His hopes of grifting like his role model, Sarah Palin, haven't really panned out, though. In his first fundraising quarter, he pulled in just $50,728—certainly not serious money for a congressional bid (especially in a district as hostile to Republicans as Ohio's 9th). But he did manage to pay himself a salary of almost $9000 out of his campaign's coffers—legal but pretty rare, given how obviously dodgy it looks.
But now Joe's created a new problem for himself. You see, when you run for Congress, you have to keep filing fundraising reports with the FEC on a regular basis. You can't just file one! But I'm not sure Joe realizes that. Because Ohio's primary is coming up soon (on March 6), the FEC requires special pre-primary reports to be filed. Those were due by midnight Eastern on Thursday, March February 23. But when I click over to the webpage for Joe's campaign committee at the FEC, this is all I see:
Unlike dozens of other Ohio candidates who filed their pre-primary reports on time, Joe's is nowhere to be found. I mean, hard as it may be to believe, you'd almost think he isn't running a serious campaign operation! Oh, poor Joe. Maybe it's time to reconsider your plans to purchase that company making "250 to 280 thousand dollars a year." But you might need to raise some more money first.