by Rob Douglas

Over the weekend, reports surfaced that personal information maintained in Ohio government databases about Samuel Wurzelbacher – better known as “Joe the Plumber” -  was accessed in the days following Mr. Wurzelbacher’s questioning of presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama.

According to the Toledo Blade, in GOP Calls for Inquiry of ‘Plumber’ Data Breach, citing the Columbus Dispatch, “Mr. Wurzelbacher’s driver’s license and vehicle registration information were pulled three times within days after the debate.”

Joe the Plumber (Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher)

Further, “That information was accessed through accounts assigned to the office of the Ohio attorney general, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency, and the Toledo Police Department.”

And, “The Ohio attorney general’s office is investigating whether the access of Mr. Wurzelbacher’s Bureau of Motor Vehicle information through the office’s Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, said Jennifer Brindisi, a spokesman with that office.”

In the latest development, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports this morning in Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency Probing Breach of Data on ‘Joe the Plumber’ that “Officials at the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency will be looking at the computer activity of an employee who may have accessed the personal information of the man who became famous as “Joe the Plumber” during the last presidential debate…”Certainly there will be disciplinary action if the staff person did this,” [County Administrator James] McCafferty said. “Just because you have the ability to access the information, you certainly don’t have the right to do that. That’s private information.”"

If it turns out that county or state employees pulled Mr. Wurzelbacher’s information from databases maintained by the state for political purposes, or even just old fashioned snooping, the employees involved should not just be disciplined – they should be fired.  When government employees misuse information that the government requires citizens to provide, it validates Americans’ justifiable fears that the government can’t be trusted to restrict that information for the purposes it was intended. 

Further, and most importantly, for an individual to have their records pulled merely because they dared to ask a question of a political candidate strikes at the heart of American values and denigrates the principles this country was founded upon.

Ohio should act quickly to investigate who pulled Mr. Wurzelbacher’s records and should act equally as quickly in terminating the employment of any and all who did so improperly.