EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I.Anthony Gemma made his fortune at the helm of his family's plumbing business, but he's making his name in Rhode Island by waging what sometimes seems to be a one-man mission to take down U.S. Rep. David Cicilline.

Gemma, 42, is making his second run for Congress against the one-term Cicilline, a fellow Democrat he's been accusing since 2010 of being "unfit to serve" in Congress. They face each other in the Sept. 11 primary.

Gemma (pronounced JEM'-uh) has rarely let up on his scathing criticism of the former Providence mayor since he came in a distant second to Cicilline in a four-way primary in 2010. In recent weeks, and offering no hard evidence, he acknowledged spending $40,000 on a private investigation into Cicilline and accused him of orchestrating massive voter fraud going back to 2002, including paying people to vote, paying campaign workers under the table and other misdeeds. Cicilline has disputed all of it, saying Gemma is waging a smear campaign.

The accusations have overshadowed Gemma's personal story of success in businesses and service to the community with a cancer charity he started.

Cicilline has a huge cash edge over Gemma, who is largely self-funding his campaign. Cicilline had $483,000 cash on hand to Gemma's $25,000, as of Aug. 22, although Gemma has since given himself $150,000, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. The winner will face Republican Brendan Doherty, former head of the state police, on Nov. 6.

Gemma grew up poor, the youngest of nine children. His family lived four or five children to a bedroom, he told an audience at a senior housing complex in East Providence last month. He was 10 when he began to learn plumbing at his father's knee.

"I understand how hard it is to earn a dollar," he told the crowd, which nodded in agreement.

Gemma worked his way through college at Suffolk University, where he graduated cum laude, and then went to Roger Williams Law School. He returned to the family business in 1999 and built Gem Plumbing & Heating into the most well-recognized plumbing company in the state.

One trick to getting there was its phone number: 867-5309. Familiar from the 1982 Tommy Tutone hit "867-5309/Jenny," the number has helped business because potential customers didn't have to search for a number when looking for a plumber, Gemma has said. The company trademarked the number in 2005.

Gemma was president and CEO of Gem until 2009, when he launched a marketing firm.

Excerpt from:
Gemma tries to turn business success into votes