Since the third Presidential debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, Joe the Plumber (Joe Wurzelbacher) has gotten more than he bargained for. Joe in Ohio has been chastised for not having a plumber’s license according to a local source, and news and camera crews have been camping out in his front yard. The local union doesn’t seem to be very thrilled with Joe either.

But, I am more concerned for the other common Joe the Plumbers.

Joe Lara owns a company called Joe the Plumber in Ventura County, Calif. Lara has received 180,207 hits on his Website, over 300 phone calls, and hundreds of e-mails. He has been interviewed for several publications and appeared on television four times, given three radio interviews, made the cover of the local newspaper twice, met a lot of people and signed two dozen autographs — all this in a three-day period, according to Lara.

However, there is also a company by the name of Joe the Plumber in Amarillo, Texas that has been in business for 20 years; if you go to the Website you can see an authentic Joe the Plumber t-shirt. Joe Francis owns www.joetheplumber.com and is probably experiencing a ton of Web traffic in Amarillo these days.

And, don’t forget Joe the Plumber in Seattle, and there are probably a few more, but you get the point by now. Joe the Plumber is everywhere!

The plumbing industry got a lot of press time over this one, but everyone seems to have forgotten that the company Joe Wurzelbacher works for is not really Joe the Plumber? It is actually Newell Plumbing and Heating Co. I guess if the more accurate reference, Joe the Plumber & Heater Guy from Newell, had been used, the story wouldn’t have been as appealing to the press.