I'm Joe Wilson, But Not THAT Joe Wilson!

By Mike Seely, Thu., Sep. 10 2009 @ 12:25PM

Comments (11)

Categories: Campaign 2009

Normally, when an aspiring public officeholder who's just launched a Facebook page gets an early rush of followers, it's a great sign (just ask Barack Obama). But not so with Snohomish County Superior Court judicial candidate Joe Wilson (pictured at left). If that name sounds familiar, it's because there's another guy who's been in the news of late named Joe Wilson: The South Carolina Congressman/Michael Bloomberg doppelganger who heckled the President during his health-care address last night. In the hours since that debacle, Congressman Wilson has seen a stream of donations flow into the coffers of his electoral challenger.

Meanwhile, our Joe Wilson's new Facebook followers seem to have him confused with the other Joe Wilson, as they've flooded his page with angry comments. The campaign has tried to pull down as many of the confused commentators' screeds as possible, but they've had difficulty keeping up. Suffice it to say, this sort of name confusion does not stand to benefit local candidate Wilson in quite the same way as it did Eddie Murphy's Thomas Jefferson Johnson in The Distinguished Gentleman. Hence, Snohomish County's Wilson saw fit to send the following email to his Facebook fans this morning in an attempt to clear things up:

Hello everyone!

First let me say that our campaign is going well. We're picking up endorsements from across Snohomish County, and are putting together a strong field campaign with well over 200 volunteers.

Things are coming together as well as we could have hoped, and we're excited to host our kickoff event tonight at the Knights of Columbus in Everett.

I am also amused to see how our support is growing across the country! Last night, a South Carolina congressman named Joe Wilson -- from the same state that is working to pull Boeing out of Washington -- yelled during President Obama's speech "You lie!"

As a result he's gotten a great deal of national notoriety, and has since apologized for his lack of decorum.

And, since I share the same name, some who may not know the difference between Snohomish County and South Carolina have decided to direct their anger or support at me. I've woken to 50 new Facebook fans as well! Most of the comments have been taken down, but folks keep posting more quickly than we can respond.

So, for what it's worth, I think the Congressman was inappropriate and was right to apologize. Some of my new found "fans" should probably direct their affections elsewhere for more appropriate reasons.

But, in any case, here in Snohomish County, we are working hard on our race for Superior Court! With less than 8 weeks to go till election day, we're well on our way and are looking forward to a win this November!

Best,

Joe Wilson
Candidate for Snohomish County Superior Court