“I said in good consciousness I cannot support David Cicilline,” Gemma told me, recounting what he said Monday night at the endorsement meeting for the Rhode Island Association of Democratic City and Town Chairpersons.

After talking about it with me, Gemma softened his position, saying, “We’re in a political fight right now. On September 12, I will reassess my position.”

He added, My number one objective is to keep the seat Democratic. I will rally behind the Democratic party.”

But some at the Monday night meeting doubt that is really Gemma’s objective.

“I’m every bit as progressive and as liberal as David Cicilline,” Gemma told me on Friday. “If progressives would look under the hood, they would see I’m their guy.”

He said he supports the DREAM Act, marriage equality and even decriminalization for small amounts of marijuana. He says he’s personally opposed to abortion, but promises to never vote against a women’s right to choose. On tax policy he talks like a progressive, calling the GOP House budget “draconian” and saying he the supports the Buffett Rule, rolling back Bush era tax cuts and even keeping in place estate taxes, though all in the name of lowering the deficit rather than investing in society for its own sake.

But Gemma, a businessman who grew his family plumbing empire into a multi-million dollar a year business and also ran a marketing and communications firm, can be hard to believe at times.

He’s also promised to create 10,000 jobs for Rhode Island in five years by bringing together public and private sector leaders to build upon a business plan he drafted for the 2010 campaign and is retooling for this one – it’s long on platitudes and short on policy proposals. Almost no one thinks such a lofty goal is a realistic campaign promise coming from someone who would be a rookie congressman, but Gemma confidently asserts he can use his team-building skills to get it done.

He’s never held public office, so he’s got no track record. And furthermore, he only registered as a Democrat a few short months before announcing his candidacy in 2010, and didn’t vote in the 2008 primary. He once donated to the campaign of conservative Republican Don Carcieri.

“I gave him a donation because I was running a business and he was definitely the pro-business candidate,” he said of Carcieri, though he said he didn’t vote for him and has never voted for a Republican.

Gemma said he supports organized labor “when unions support Rhode Island,” but again, his track record is at best, tarnished. Gem Plumbing was cited for 32 labor violations, which was “later reduced to six over the objection of the chief inspector,” according to the Associated Press, for hiring non-union plumbers when he was president of the company.

“I don’t recall exactly what happened because it was such a long time ago,” he said. “Our company was growing so fast at the time we my have made some mistakes along the way.”

Even his social networking success is suspect, a case RI Future first made in this piece: Gemma’s Suspicious Facebook Followers. He’s got more than 900,000 followers on Twitter and more than 100,000 friends on Facebook. But ask him how he amassed such a following, and he’s not talking.

“Strategically, there are ways in which to deal with social networking that I would like to write a book about,” he said. But added, “I choose not to talk about strategy during the campaign.”

He did say that it’s “certainly possible” that some of his Facebook and Twitter followers are not real people but said he has “never done the research to know how many are real and how many are fake.” When I asked if he paid for automated follows and Facebook friends he said, “Again, I’m not going to about strategy.”

So we’ll have to wait for the book to find out how he got more than 40,000 Facebook likes in one day, or why he has so many followers from Germany, Spain, Indonesia, and Dubai.

It’s not unlike how he invited reporters to a Sunday evening availability then declined to answer questions from them. Gemma seems to enjoy controlling the message, and one has to wonder if he’s doing that with his new-found fervor for progressive policy positions as well.

“Given Rhode Island’s current economic condition – with high unemployment and stagnant population growth – I have reservations about adopting policies that could put us at a competitive disadvantage when compared to other states,” she said in a prepared statement. “The best way to increase tax revenue is to grow our state’s overall economy so every Rhode Islander benefits from our success.”

Earlier this month, when I first asked Raimondo about the Miller-Cimini income tax bills, that would repeal the flat income tax and raise back the rates on Rhode Island’s richest residents to the where they were lowered from starting in 2007, she said she hadn’t heard of the effort – even though it had been covered by this news outlet, as well as the Providence Journal, WPRI and RI Public Radio, among others.

In her statement that her deputy chief of staff Joy Fox gave me more recently, Raimondo said: “Representative Cimini and Senator Miller should be commended for reminding all Rhode Islanders about the increasing levels of income inequality across our state, and by extension our country. I look forward to working with Representative Cimini and Senator Miller to actively pursue economic development policies and opportunities that improve our state for everyone.”

When asked about Raimondo’s position on the tax equity bills, George Nee, president of the local AFL-CIO, who has been helping to lead the charge for the bills passage, said, “I don’t know if I’m surprised but I’m certainly disappointed. I still don’t see the connection between jobs and taxes.”

Nee, and other supporters of the tax equity bills, have pointed to the fact that unemployment in Rhode Island has gone up as income tax rates for the affluent have gone down. The AFL-CIO also released poll results last week done by Flemming and Associates that indicates 68 percent of Rhode Islanders support the bills, which would raise the income tax rate on those who make more than $250,000 but subsequently lower it when the unemployment rate drops.

“We will continue to provide her with information to try to change her mind,” Nee said. “I was hoping she would see this as a necessary change in policy on both a state and federal level.”

Our reporting on ALEC this week brought that rarely-mentioned truism to the center of debate this week. Not only is ALEC’s lone Democrat on its board of directors Woonsocket’s own Jon Brien. But for a supposedly liberal state, ALEC has no small toe hold on our General Assembly – more than 20 percent of legislators are members, and half of them are Democrats.

Ian Donnis, of Rhode Island Public Radio, picked up on the theme writing, “Rhode Island might rank among the most bluest states, but you wouldn’t know it from the General Assembly.”

By way of example, he cites our ALEC reporting, last year’s voter ID bill (not surprisingly, that effort was spearheaded by Brien) and the legislative leaderships’ reluctance to embrace income tax increases as a way to get out of debt, noting that, “Speaker Fox and Senate President Paiva Weed seem in tune with Chamber of Commerce types.”

David Sharfenberg of the Phoenix compared Smith Hill legislators’ stance on tax policy to that of their congressional counterparts, writing:

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse got all kinds of attention for his “Buffett Rule” push, calling on the wealthy to “pay their fair share.” Meanwhile, on Smith Hill, the General Assembly seems all but certain to kill legislation that would raise taxes on the rich.

It’s as good an illustration as any of the striking gulf between state- and federal-level politics in Rhode Island – the former rather conservative, the latter pretty liberal.

While Sharfenberg notes that this phenomenon is particularly acute in Woonsocket, Pawtucket and Tiverton, I would add all of Rhode Island save for South County and the West Bay to the list – though Woonsocket is certainly ground zero for conservative Democrats.

Consider this comment posted by Jef Nickerson, who blogs at Greater City: PVD:

“Is there a decoder-ring for the different flavors of “Democrat” in this state,” he wrote. “Moderate-Democrat, Conservative-Democrat, Rightwing-Democrat, Woonsocket-Democrat.”

And similarly, a nonpartisan State House insider, who asked not to be identified, said to me earlier in the week, “In Woonsocket, Democrat is French for Republican.”

But while Woonsocket is the poster child for DINO’s (Democrats in name only), it by no means lays the only claim to a share of this market.

There’s also Karen MacBeth, of Cumberland, who is sponsoring the ultrasound bill that would make it both more onerous for women to get an abortion, and more humbling. And who can forget Rep. Peter Palumbo, who called Jessica Ahlquist “an evil little thing” for sticking up for the Constitution rather than religion in the case of the Cranston prayer banner.

Or how about House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is openly gay, and didn’t fight for marriage equality last legislative session. He’s only slightly less conservative than Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed, who is well known for valuing Catholics more than constituents.

And these are just the most vocal and recently public examples; there’s also: Doc Corvese of North Providence, Peter Petrarca of Johnston, John Edwards of Portsmouth, Peter Martin of Newport and, of course, Nick Mattiello of Cranston … the list goes on and on…

Anyone who tells you this state is controlled by the political left or organized labor may as well be trying to sell you swampland in Florida. It’s simply not true anymore. For evidence of as much one need look no farther than most popular politicians in the state – Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and Treasurer Gina Raimondo – both of whom are most well known for taking on the unions. And in case you haven’t noticed, it’s been years since organized labor won a meaningful battle at the State House.

So while conservatives scoff at the notion that there is any relationship between tax cuts to the rich and the Rhode Island’s high unemployment rate (even though the correlation completely undercuts the job creator myth that so many of them espouse), it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the simple fact that as Rhode Island moves to the right it’s economy keeps getting weaker and weaker.

Many said they didn’t know much about the organization, even though it has been all over the news as of late, and that they would be taking a closer look to see if it jibes with their politics.

“I was asked to sign up,” said Rep. Peter Martin, a conservative Democrat from Newport, saying Brien asked him to join. “Now, I’m questioning why I did. I’m learning more about it and thinking I better learn a little more. I like Jon Brien but sometimes he’s a little more to the right than I am.”

Brien, a conservative Democrat, recently joined ALEC’s national board of directors. He said ALEC is actively trying to recruit more Democrats. A list of local members of the American Legislative Exchange Council indicates that more than 20 percent of the General Assembly belong to the group.

Rep. John Edwards, of Tiverton, said he didn’t join ALEC.

“Someone signed me up,” he said. “I thought it was more like the [National Conference of State Legislatures].”

The NCSL is a bipartisan group that helps state lawmakers share ideas. ALEC, on the other hand, supports only conservative ideology and is backed by corporate America. Edwards said being aligned with corporate America isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be he added.

“Sometimes corporate America is aligned with my values and sometimes it isn’t, like when they are sticking it to the middle class,” he said. “I’m a moderate Democrat. I’m not one of those far-right Democrats.”

Rep. Sam Azzinaro, a conservative Democrat from Westerly, said he knew nothing about ALEC, even though he was on a list of members provided by Brien.

Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, a Woonsocket Democrat, said her membership in ALEC does not necessarily imply that she supports the group.

“If someone joins an organization, it’s not always because they are an advocate for that organization,” she said. “It might be just that they are looking for more information.”

Rep. Michael Marcello, a Scituate Democrat, echoed this sentiment, saying, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to get more information. It doesn’t mean I support 100 percent of what they do.”

In fact, Marcello distance himself from many of ALEC’s legislative priorities, saying he doesn’t support voter ID as well as other ALEC initiatives. “I didn’t join as a form of support, I joined to get more information.”

He said he and Brien attended an ALEC reception at G-Tech earlier in the year. Brien was an attorney for G-Tech from 2002 to 2007, and said he attended his first ALEC reception at G-Tech years ago when his wife was a member of the General Assembly, at the request of former Woonsocket legislator Jerry Martineau, who was convicted on corruption charges in 2009 for his cozy relationship with CVS and Blue Cross.

Brien, one of the more conservative members of the state legislature from either party, said he signed up most of the House members during the special pension session in November.

“They all thought it sounded good when they signed up,” he said. “My goal is to sign up as many new members as I can.”

Brien said the special pension session came on the heels of ALEC’s annual meeting last summer, at which he said he spent four days focusing on education reform. He described ALEC as being nonpartisan.

“I don’t find education reform to be a divisive or partisan or ideological issue,” he said. But, of course, in Rhode Island it is – and during the summer Brien almost got into a fight in an elevator with an official from the NEARI after the two exchanged words outside of a courtroom when another union official was on trial for cyberharassing an anti-union Democrat during the 2010 election season.

He said his politics are closely aligned with ALEC’s legislative agenda, but that he will not do its bidding.

“Is my goal to have ALEC have influence at the State House? No,” he said. “My goal is to bring together politically like-minded representatives and senators when we believe in the same issues and ideas. If we do that, ALEC will by osmosis have influence at the State House.”

Anne Connor, whom we profiled, received more overall votes than former Providence Mayor Joe Paolino, who took out an ad in the ProJo (though he did spell the president’s name wrong in it). She even got more votes than him in his hometown of Providence – and she lives in suburban Barrington.

Conservative, anti-union Democrat Doug Gablinske received the fewest votes in CD1

In CD2, the three progressive members of the General Assembly – Josh Miller, Frank Ferri and Teresa Tanzi netted nearly 1,000 more overall votes than the three Weiner candidates, an affluent family from East Greenwich known for being political insiders and regulars at the party convention.

For a complete list of results, click here.

The winners are below, including total number of votes they garnered and percentage.

UPDATE: RI Future Publisher Emeritus Matt Jerzyk writes that our delegate results isn’t accurate because Democratic rules for the representing candidates at the convention employ a sort of affirmative action in which the top 5 men and top 6 women from each district are chosen. As such, these are the results according to Jerzyk:

The top 5 men and top 6 women in each CD are elected – not just the top 11.  That would mean the following won yesterday:

CD-1

• Myrth YORK
• Julie E. MEYERS
• Anne W. CONNOR
• Joseph R. PAOLINO, JR.
• Onna A. MONIZ-JOHN
• Mary A. GASBARRO
• June S. SPEAKMAN
• Brett P. SMILEY
• Tom CODERRE
• Gerald Pedro CARVALHO
• David A. SALVATORE

CD-2

• Joshua MILLER
• Patrick T. FOGARTY
• Teresa TANZI
• Frank G. FERRI
• Elaine PRIOR
• Michael A. SOLOMON
• L. Susan WEINER
• Mark S. WEINER
• Elisa M. POLLARD
• Helen S. TAYLOR
• Zoe I. WEINER

CD1

CD2

Expect the President's reelection campaign to be far tougher than 2008

Thousands of Rhode Islanders went to work today (or looked for work) instead of to the polls. Maybe they were going to vote, but then decided they just wanted to go home. Or maybe they didn’t like the candidates. Or maybe they just didn’t know where their local polling place was. They’ll all be counted as people who didn’t vote.

I didn’t go to my local polling place either, even though it’s a short walk (or even shorter bike ride) from where I live. It wasn’t that I don’t think that the delegate candidates don’t deserve to go Charlotte (or Tampa, if that’s your preference). It’s that I don’t want who they’re voting for. Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich; not matter who a delegate is pledged to, what’s the point?

France held its first round of presidential elections on the weekended. U.S. media was keen to tell us how the process works. And buried in this Slate article about Socialist candidate Francois Hollande’s use of an Obama-style get-out-the-vote operation was the idea that the 30% of people who didn’t vote are termed “les abstentionnistes” which I think translates into “the abstainers.” The article makes the point that in France, not voting is constructed as a conscious choice, versus the American idea that not voting is a sign of laziness or inability or apathy.

So I abstained. I made a conscious choice. And, believe it or not, plenty of people made this choice too. When we think about why people don’t turn out, there are certainly plenty of reforms we can make to lower the bar to participation (a week long celebratory holiday for voting was suggested by a teacher once and is my favorite idea). But we also need to focus on why should I turn out for Candidate X. And that’s on Candidate X.

In this case, it’s on President Obama. I voted for President Obama twice, once against Hillary Clinton and once again against John McCain. In 2008, there were a lot of reasons to go to the polls and vote. Sarah Palin as vice president, the traditional idea of Democrats as the solution to economic depressions, the worst stock market crash since 1929, etc. September 2008 had unleashed the idea that Democrats would attempt a second New Deal in many people my age. We had hope, and we voted for change. And we really thought things were going to change.

This woman could've become Vice President.

The President betrayed that hope, and he didn’t bring change. He expanded the scope of the War on Terror to include American citizens, doubled down on the War on Drugs, continues to issue signing statements, failed to push for a strong enough stimulus, fails to forcefully push for LGBT rights; and surrounds himself with Wall Street hacks largely responsible for the crisis (Larry Summers isn’t “change you can believe in”); Mr. Obama has proved over and over that he is a Third Way Democrat; Bill Clinton without the panache or economic rebound. Is it any wonder large portions of Mr. Obama’s voters stayed home in 2010? He hadn’t given them anything to believe in since inauguration day. And his party got shellacked for it.

Occupy Wall Street contains plenty of youth who are angry with the President. The ability of a largely disenchanted and unemployed youth to turn the nation conversation on economics away from the national debt and towards economic inequality proves just how important they are to politics. Even Republicans picked up on this.

OWS’ major flaw is their antipathy towards electoral politics, but understandable, given that their faith in Barack Obama was rewarded with the half-measures and inept political maneuvering that define his presidency. The healthcare plan enacted, while having some great upsides, is emblematic of this. One of its defenses has been “but the Heritage Foundation originated it!” This neither eases conservative anger nor does it rally progressives and liberals.

President Obama should be a lesson for all Democrats and anyone who uses progressives as part of their electoral coalition. David Cicilline is facing the toughest election of his political career. Turning to a populist, energized campaign based on strong, deliverable ideological issues would move the campaign beyond Providence’s finances. It would also pick up dedicated support from inventing young people. Allowing his campaign to become a referendum on the Democratic Party makes his general election prospects dim, as well as his primary ones. Both Mr. Cicilline and challenger Anthony Gemma are going to use the following phrases: “grassroots support” “protect Social Security” “failed Republican policies”. The only thing that will distinguish them are their stances on abortion, unless Mr. Gemma flips.

Governor Lincoln Chafee was largely elected on a progressive coalition that saw Frank Caprio and John Robataille as symptomatic of the Republicrat-Democan system (for more of that, see our editor Bob Plain’s reporting on ALEC). Unfortunately, he’s largely fallen into that dynamic, and has essentially abandoned his progressive followers. If he runs in a three-way race again in 2014 (assuming he doesn’t change parties once again), energizing those progressives will be important.

So, given that candidates are well-versed in not delivering anything, is it any wonder so many people abstained rather than vote for a delegate to go “aye” for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?

First, you need to know where to vote. Type your address into this Google gadget and it’ll spit out not only where, but it’ll give you directions there too:

And if you need a hand knowing who’s a progressive and who isn’t, we made a little cheat sheet for you. The progressives are listed in bold, with a short description. Both Districts vote for 11 delegates … and don’t forget, you don’t have to vote for 11. And if you’re trying to send a progressive slate to the convention you may not want to since a vote for a non-progressive could make a big difference when the votes are tallied.

CD1

1. Onna A. MONIZ-JOHN – According to EastBayRI.com, she’s ” a retired Affirmative Action and Welfare director for the City of East Providence” who was recently honored by the Rhode Island Black Heritage society for her “outstanding contributions to the African American community in Rhode Island.”
2. Julie E. MEYERS - A Leadership RI alum and a vocal advocate of marriage equality.
3. Jeffrey M. PADWA – He’s got Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’ endorsement as city solicitor, so he’s got ours for delegate.
4. Terri-Denise CORTVRIEND
5. Myrth YORK- A three time gubernatorial loser, who considered running for mayor before endorsing Taveras, she used to represent the East Side in the General Assembly.
6. David A. SALVATORE
7. June S. SPEAKMAN – The president of the Barrington Town Council, she is considering running for a seat in the state Senate against Republican David Bates, who has held the seat for 20 years.
8. Brett P. SMILEY - He was Charlie Fogarty’s campaign manager and has been an outspoken activist for marriage equality in Rhode Island.
9. Douglas W. GABLINSKE
10. Anne W. CONNOR – A longtime liberal in the tradition of the Farmer-Labor Party, Anne is an advocate of the process rather than a political insider. See our story on her here.
11. Mary A. GASBARRO
12. Tom CODERRE – Works for Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed, an all-round good guy.
13. Joseph R. PAOLINO, JR.
14. Herbert P. WEISS
15. Rebecca Kim MEARS – Watch for this Brown University freshman in the years to come.
16. Gerald Pedro CARVALHO – Not necessarily a progressive, but he’s a longtime Newport fisherman.

CD2

1. Joshua MILLER – As a state senator, he’s sponsoring the high-profile tax equity bill that would temporarily raise taxes on Rhode Island’s richest residents and another that would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. For a day job, he owns the Hot Club, Trinity Brewhouse and Local 121. Forget about delegate, we should elect this guy president.
2. Frank G. FERRI – Another staunch State House progressive, Ferri is the sponsor of legislation that would curb payday lending.
3. Patrick T. FOGARTY
4. Thomas J. IZZO
5. Michael A. SOLOMON
6. Elaine PRIOR – She helped to run the Downcity Farmers’ Market, reason enough to send her to the convention.
7. Andy M. ANDUJAR - Works for David Cicilline, an occasional visitor to Drinking Liberally.
8. Hecmy A. JOSE
9. David J. GRAZIANO
10. Mark S. WEINER
11. Elisa M. POLLARD
12. Paul H. ARCHETTO
13. Teresa TANZI – As one of the most progressive members of the House, this year she has stood up for local fishermen, local beer and wine makers and women’s rights.
14. Helen S. TAYLOR
15. L. Susan WEINER
16. Zoe I. WEINER
17. Ryan Patrick KELLEY

Anne Connor, with the State House in the background, outside of the GTech building where she works.

There are no shortage of usual suspects looking to go back to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC this August, but none of them collected as many signatures as did Anne W. Connor, a self-proclaimed political outsider from Barrington, who garnered more than twice the 150 signatures needed to register for the ballot.

“I’m just an ordinary citizen,” she said, during her lunch break the other day. She is a licensing specialist with G-Tech, but she’s also worked as a paralegal and a librarian during her career.

She lives in Barrington where she and her husband, a retired lawyer, raised their two children. Her political inspiration, she said, is Treasurer Gina Raimondo, whose campaign she volunteered for.

A loyal Democrat since  supporting Adlai Stevenson in the 1950′s, she said she really swore her allegiance to liberal causes in college when her roommates father, a member of the Farmer-Labor Party, informed her politics.

“He said he wouldn’t mind paying more taxes if it meant an older person or a student could get better public transportation,” she said, noting that this is still her philosophy to this day. “I’m happy to pay more in taxes as an individual if everyone else pays according to their means.

To this day, she holds many traditional progressive values. She supports health care reform, Planned Parenthood, the the Buffet Rule, and said she didn’t think Rhode Island should have passed a voter ID law last year.

“I think it’s burdensome for senior citizens,” Connor said. “You want to make it as easy for people to vote as possible and no one has demonstrated for me that there is any voter fraud in Rhode Island.”

She enjoys reading, cooking and spending time with her two grown children. She’s also the president-elect of the First Unitarian Church in Providence, which runs the mobile Loaves and Fishes program and was supportive of Occupy Providence last year.

Connor said she isn’t trying to launch a political career or curry favor with party insiders. Instead, she said she wants to go to learn about the process and her party.

“I want to find out what people are thinking in other parts of the country,” she said. “I want to get the pulse of the nation.”

For instance, type “Anthony Gemma” in any search engine. See the first result? ”Anthony Gemma for Congress 2012.” He’s also taken a leave of absence as CEO of Mediapeel after selling it to Alex and Ani. Mr. Gemma needs to stop beating around the bush and announce already. The ongoing speculation feels like it’s being used as an attempt to drum up buzz, and it’s not helping him. He has been running since he lost in 2010. We know this. I saw Facebook advertisements back in 2011. Mr. Gemma has been attacking U.S. Congressman David Cicilline since the latter took office, every chance Mr. Gemma gets. It’s long past time for him to announce.

Unfortunately for Mr. Gemma, Democrats don’t want him. Maybe it’s the fact he only affiliated with the Democrats when he decided to run for U.S. Congress the last time. Maybe it’s that, as WPRI’s Ted Nesi put it on Newsmakers, “he’s sounding more like a Governor or an EDC chairman” than a congressional candidate. Joe Fleming also makes clear in that video that Mr. Gemma has almost no support from the left or the establishment wings of the Democratic Party, and even his support among its right wing will be shaky. The Party will lock shields around Mr. Cicilline.

Mr. Gemma doesn’t belong in politics. He belongs in business, where he can at least hide somewhat from public view and people are less inclined to challenge him openly. Unfortunately for the all-but-declared primary contender, politics is a public process, where scrutiny comes at you whether you want it to or not. Which is why it’s interesting to see that the candidate’s campaign page on Facebook suddenly leaped up in likes during the month of February.

A sudden jump in Anthony Gemma for Congress' number of likes; apparently, he's popular in Germany

Just as interesting are the subscribers to his personal page. Who are the 20,000+ people subscribed to Anthony Gemma’s Facebook? And here’s a better question: what’s up with many of their unusual names? And why do most like “Unicorn City Film” as a movie? Or why do Kevin Ubtryvh and Heideo Uthrdl have the same 16 friends (and only 16 friends), the exact same likes in sports teams, music, books, movies, and television, and yet somehow aren’t friends and grew up and went to schools in completely different places? Why are a large majority of their friends sporting the last name “Hic” or else some slight variant on that? Is Penix Jermainebrianne even a real person, or should her parents (assuming they exist) simply be examined for naming her such? Why do so many of Mr. Gemma’s Facebook subscribers follow this basic pattern of an odd first name followed by a last name made up of two names which are usually first names?

Mr. Gemma is about to go up against David Cicilline, a well-financed opponent who has a strong base of support among the Democratic Party apparatus. But Mr. Cicilline may have the money and ground games ready, he doesn’t have anything like Mr. Gemma’s Facebook numbers; totaling a mere 3,456 likes (this is comparable with numbers put up by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse). Mr. Gemma racked up 41,764 likes on February 23rd alone (a date he issued a press release attacking Mr. Cicilline; this doesn’t usually brings tens of thousands to click “Like” on one’s Facebook page). Looking just at his Facebook numbers, Anthony Gemma should be Rhode Island’s most popular politician. Which is why he sits 13 points behind Republican candidate Brendan Doherty in the latest WPRI poll (in comparison, Mr. Doherty has only 5,523 likes).

Now, there’s no conclusive proof that Mr. Gemma is not popular in Germany, Spain, Indonesia, and Dubai; countries where many of his subscribers are from. There’s no conclusive proof that Corinem Yers doesn’t exist (he’s also a fan of Unicorn City Film). But these people don’t show up on a Google search in any other place except Facebook. In contrast, most people tend to at least show up  somewhere other than Facebook, because they have lived full lives. Examples include websites for their colleges, or their jobs, or in newspapers, or even the online white pages. Maybe those following the not-yet-a-candidate are merely people who are so cloistered from modern society they’re only allowed limited Facebook access. And maybe Anthony Gemma appeals to those people. In which case, he should be applauded to reaching out to a forgotten segment of our society.

But alternatively, people (especially those who are a bit tech savvy) could take a look at this and come away thinking one thing: Anthony Gemma is utilizing bots to inflate his social media numbers. Even if that’s not true, the appearance is what matters. Anyone looking for big numbers is going to think that more likes on Facebook equals a better candidate. But therein lies a problem. If your social media followers aren’t dedicated, if they aren’t real, then you’ve just lost a social media battle. To technologically competent people, nothing’s worse than a social media phony. People might begin to think like Facebook user Alex Avalos, who put it thusly to Anthony Gemma:

______________________________________________

Updates: RIFuture has attempted to contact Mr. Gemma for a response, but so far, he has not yet responded.

Sadly, an astute reader has pointed out that the Facebook account Penix Jermainbrianne no longer exists.

We also have been getting some emails and Facebook responses about this story. Readers have pointed out that Mr. Gemma’s Twitter followers are likewise odd, and he seems to be able to rally online support in online polls. Last election cycle, the Providence Journal‘s PolitiFact was unable to conclusively evaluate claims made by Mr. Gemma’s campaign about his status on LinkedIn. Likewise, a couple of readers have said this recalls late last year when Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was revealed to have followers who were roughly 80% dummy or inactive accounts. However, that was evaluated to be not far off from a standard political account. The second-to-last paragraph of that story leaves us with the idea that we should apply caution to all online interactions and not take things at face value.

So there is no smoking gun to suggest that Gingrich, or any of these politicians, bought any of their followers. But what this kind of analysis also reveals, says Topsy [a social media search company], is how hard it is to say which Twitter accounts are for real and which aren’t. Spam bots are getting more sophisticated; many now have fake profile pictures, fake bios and generate fake tweets. “The fact is, a large proportion of all Twitter accounts are inactive anyway,” says Ghosh [Topsy co-founder].