Real "Joe the Plumbers" sound off

Joe Anderson of DNF Plumbing said he is undecided on the Nov. 4 presidential election. (Courtesty of Joe Anderson)

Poor Joe the Plumber. After being mentioned 24 times in Wednesday night’s presidential debate, it turns out that Joe the Plumber’s given name is neither Joseph, nor is he a licensed plumber. The Ohio man became something of a Republican darling after he challenged Sen. Barack Obama on Obama’s proposed tax plan, saying he’d be overtaxed if he is elected. So we turned our lens on Clark County and asked real Plumber Joes to sound off.

Name: Joe Anderson, DNF Plumbing.
Age: 35.
City: Washougal.
Candidate: Undecided, leaning toward Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
“I’m leaning toward McCain, but I still like what Obama has to say, so I’m not sure yet. I mean, our package deal for the union, it’s a pretty good deal and I want to make sure we keep our health care and benefits and 401K. My belief is that McCain is more for that. … One good thing about Obama is that he’s trying not to raise the taxes of people who earn under $250,000. That’s one piece that caught my eye.”

Name: Joe Williams, All County Plumbing.
Age: 26.
City: Amboy.
Candidate: “Maybe Obama, maybe nobody.”
“I don’t really hear nobody talking about the poor folks. And I’m poor. Every election that comes around, it just seems like a bunch of hoopla. It seems like the Democrats seem to always talk about the poor folks to get the poor folks on their side, and as soon as they get in, it all goes out the window. The Republicans just want to make the rich richer. And I just plumb houses every day.”

Name: Joe Martin, owner, A-1 Thrifty Plumbing, Inc.
Age: 54.
City: Vancouver.
Candidate: Undecided, leaning toward Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
“Whoever is in there needs to be practical. You know, plumbers are practical people. They need to do what they need to do to keep this country from getting slammed like it’s being slammed right now. … I think either candidate is going to have to try to please the little guy — I think the American public is going to be pretty adamant about that. We haven’t been doing that, and these financial crises are hurting too many people. I think it’s kind of shocked everybody.”

Name: Isaac “Joe” Laing, Jr., owner, Laing’s Plumbing.
Age: 58.
City: Vancouver.
Candidate: McCain.
“I’m leaning toward national security. Just ripping out our troops — both Hillary Clinton and Sen. Obama said that within 60 days they would start removing troops, but you just can’t do that. … I don’t agree with everything John McCain says — how can you? — but experiencewise, he’s the one. Obama, he’s more into socialism, and I think we need to stay totally away from that. I’m on the downhill side; I’d like to be just left alone. Let me pay what tax I owe; we’re already ­overtaxed as a small business. But that’s the American way.”

Name: Joe Martinez Jr., Peninsula Plumbing Co.
Age: 60.
City: Gresham, Ore.
Candidate: Obama.
“I’m going to vote for Obama, simply because I think he’s got a better deal, you know, something different. And he’s for the unions. He’s going to be lowering health care, you know, the price of it. I have good insurance right now, and it could get better.”

Compiled by Isolde Raftery and Michael Andersen, Columbian staff writers.