Joe the Plumber files ‘statement of candidacy’ to run for seat now held by Marcy Kaptur

10/10/2011
BY IGNAZIO MESSINA
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Samuel Wurzelbacher,
Samuel Wurzelbacher, "Joe the Plumber" , center, endorses Andy Glenn, left, for county commissioner and Jack Smith, right, for Congress, in front on One Government Center on April 27, 2010. Wurzelbacher has announced he will run for Congress.

Joe the Plumber wants to help fix Ohio and America and in about two weeks, the nation will know if the man who became an overnight sensation during the 2008 presidential campaign plans to run for congress as a Republican.

Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher, said in a telephone interview Monday that he would decide by Oct. 25 if he would run for the seat.

Mr. Wurzelbacher however filed a “statement of candidacy” on Oct. 6 with the Federal Elections Commission to run as a Republican in Ohio’s ninth U.S. House district.

“I am still exploring it one way or another and come Oct. 25 is when I will make an announcement. That is a date that I have come up with,” he said.

Mr. Wurzelbacher, a Springfield Township resident, acknowledged that he does not live in the ninth congressional district.

“If I do anything it would be in the ninth,” Mr. Wurzelbacher said. “I live in Ohio and that is what it comes down to. Legally, as long as you live in the state one year and are a registered voter, you can run anywhere you want.”

Marcy Kaptur, (D., Toledo) is the incumbent, and also the longest serving Democratic woman in the House. She and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D., Cleveland) have both said they would run for Democratic nomination and the seat. They were both put into the race after a congressional redistricting.