Joe the plumber

While Gov. Jon Corzine is speaking to his base at the Netroots Nation '09 conference, across town Steven Lonegan will be energizing the Republican base at the conservative Right Online Conference bloggers meeting in Station Square, Pittsburgh. Lonegan, a former three-term Mayor of Bogota, sought the Republican nomination for Governor earlier this year.

Lonegan organized the gathering of more than 700 bloggers, who heard former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey give the keynote address.  Toomey, a former Club for Growth chairman, is seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 2010. Also on the agenda: the Wall Street Journal's John Fund, author/columnist Michelle Malkin, and Joe the Plumber.

Joe the Plumber and Rudy Giuliani will headline events today on behalf of Republican gubernatorial candidates.  Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka Sam the Plumber, will attend a fundraiser for Steven Lonegan at the Deutscher Club tonight in Clark.  Tickets range from $50 to $1,000 per person.  Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York City, will join Christopher Christie on a conference call for reporters this afternoon.  Giuliani also made an appearance for Christie yesterday. Lonegan, Christie and Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) will all participate in a candidate forum this morning in Parsippany sponsored by the Tuesday Group.

Garden State Equality Chair Steven Goldstein said today that he welcomes "Joe the Plumber's" visit to New Jersey to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan tomorrow, especially in light of controversial comments about gay people he made in an interview that was published today.

"Joe the Plumber," a.k.a. Samuel Wurzelbacher, told Christianity Today that he favors letting states decide the gay marriage question - which is more or less the same position that Garden State Equality takes.  But in elaborating his point, Wurzelbacher made some comments some gay rights activists and progressive groups found offensive:

"People don't understand the dictionary-it's called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It's not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we're supposed to do-what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we're supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I've had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn't have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they're people, and they're going to do their thing."

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Joe the Plumber will help GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan raise money when he stumps in New Jersey tomorrow.

Steve Lonegan's gubernatorial campaign is not paying Samuel Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. "Joe the Plumber," a speaking fee for tomorrow's much hyped fundraising event in Clark.  Instead, they agreed to buy copies of his new book.

Lonegan strategist Rick Shaftan said that he did not know the exact number off the top of his head, but that the campaign agreed to purchase "100 or 200" copies of Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream.  They'll be distributed to campaign donors of $125 or more, who will then have the opportunity to get the books signed by Wurzelbacher.

"We're buying a ton of books.  That's how we worked it out," said Shaftan.

Wurzelbacher's book retails for $24.95, though the price was slashed to $16.47 on Amazon.com.  A Web site that offers to book speaking engagements for Wurzelbacher sets a minimum budget of $8,000 to $10,000, although Wurzelbacher told Shaftan that he is not represented by the booking agency.
Shaftan said the Lonegan campaign ran the event by the Election Law Enforcement Commission, which approved giving donors the books as long as they deduct the purchase price from their matching funds submissions.

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'Joe the Plumber' Wurzelbacher, campaigning for John McCain in 2008

CLARK - The Hail Mary Pass John McCain threw at the end of his presidential campaign will land in the arms of Steve Lonegan on May 5th, as everyman Joe the Plumber arrives in New Jersey to stump with the former mayor of Bogota, a Republican candidate for governor.

“It’s all set,” said Lonegan campaign strategist Rick Shaftan.

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher of Ohio – dubbed ‘Joe the Plumber’ by McCain last year as the presidential candidate strove for an example of how Barack Obama’s tax plan would impact the middle class – is scheduled to appear with Lonegan at a candidate’s fundraiser at the Deutscher Club of Clark. 

Intent on buying a plumbing business making close to $250,000 annually, Wurzelbacher said he feared being unduly punished by an Obama administration, and hit the campaign trail in iconic fashion with McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

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