Fake Twitter accounts poking fun at Jax mayoral candidates fly in 140 characters

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With plenty of trash talking and an uncanny ability to zero in on their subjects’ idiosyncracies, the satirical Twitter pages mocking the three men running for Jacksonville mayor have become an entertaining sideshow in the closely watched contest.

Of course, anonymously written parody accounts have become a Twitter staple, sending up everything from Pharell’s choice of chapeau (@PharrellHat) to the oh-so-posh musings of Queen Elizabeth (@Queen_UK).

But political Twitter satire pages have a special flavor of their own, finding humor not only in the inside-baseball jokes understandable mainly to political junkies, but also by mining the candidates’ quirks and the rivalries between them.

For example, Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown has an official Twitter account, @MayorAlvinBrown. It’s the type of daily fare you’d expect from any large-city mayor, with lots of photos of the officeholder, links to his blog, and positive announcements about the city:

In other words, it’s a world away from the irreverent big dog in the Jacksonville Twitter satire sphere, @jaxmayorbrown, which merrily mocks everything from Brown’s religious faith to his fondness for the phrase “next level,” but most of all, his opponents:

Not to be outdone, GOP frontrunner Lenny Curry has his official page, @lennycurry:

And his own parody, “The Lenny.”

https://twitter.com/MayorLennyCurry/status/562391733510873088

The new entrant in the local Twitter satire stakes is Bill Bishop, officially @Bishop4Mayor:

Unofficially, @JaxMayorBishop:

The gold standard in fake political Twitter accounts remains the legendary @mayoremanuel, a parody feed that captured the imagination of the Windy City in 2011 by hilariously (and profanely) depicting in 140-character bursts then-Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel’s raging inner monologue.

It became a Chicago parlor game among that city’s political and media circles to guess the account’s author. Dan Sinker famously came clean after Emanuel’s election and even wrote a book about the account’s wild popularity.

So who’s behind the Jacksonville parodies? Theories abound, (especially when it comes to @jaxmayorbrown) but for now, it remains a guessing game. Yet one much enjoyed by some:

https://twitter.com/alexaraewrites/status/562245917206929408

And it’s, political observers say, an interesting but ultimately harmless diversion from a high-stakes, big-money race.

“I think they are funny and entertaining, but I wonder how much reach they have beyond the Twitterverse,” says UNF professor Matt Corrigan, author of the Jeb Bush bio Conservative Hurricane.  “We political Twitter people have to remember most people are not on Twitter – especially for a low-turnout mayor’s race in Jacksonville.”

Melissa Ross

In addition to her work writing for Florida Politics, Melissa Ross also hosts and produces WJCT’s First Coast Connect, the Jacksonville NPR/PBS station’s flagship local call-in public affairs radio program. The show has won four national awards from Public Radio News Directors Inc. (PRNDI). First Coast Connect was also recognized in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014 as Best Local Radio Show by Folio Weekly’s “Best Of Jax” Readers Poll and Melissa has also been recognized as Folio Weekly’s Best Local Radio Personality. As executive producer of The 904: Shadow on the Sunshine State, Melissa and WJCT received an Emmy in the “Documentary” category at the 2011 Suncoast Emmy Awards. The 904 examined Jacksonville’s status as Florida’s murder capital. During her years in broadcast television, Melissa picked up three additional Emmys for news and feature reporting. Melissa came to WJCT in 2009 with 20 years of experience in broadcasting, including stints in Cincinnati, Chicago, Orlando and Jacksonville. Married with two children, Melissa is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism/Communications. She can be reached at [email protected].



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