Melissa Ross
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:
Check out these photos from the #RenewJax Community Empowerment Day at Eureka Gardens on Saturday http://t.co/mn7L31E5hw #ilovejax
— Mayor Alvin Brown (@MayorAlvinBrown) February 10, 2015
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:
Let's give the @lennycurry campaign a hand! They're taking stock photography to the #nextlevel. pic.twitter.com/xzaMfW1JnO
— Alvin Brown (@JaxMayorBrown) February 10, 2015
Not to be outdone, GOP frontrunner Lenny Curry has his official page, @lennycurry:
A long day,A good day thx @rmatm @NEFBAJax team for helping today, caught sons hoops playoff & ended w @StJosephsJax men's group. #ilovejax
— Lenny Curry (@lennycurry) February 10, 2015
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:
We deserve better. Bill Bishop for mayor.#BelieveinBill#JaxRenaissance #ilovejax http://t.co/upuvZ3jeuk
— Bill Bishop for City Council (@BelieveInJax) February 10, 2015
Unofficially, @JaxMayorBishop:
I am the #Jax #Mockingjay “@Dems4Bishop: Bill Bishop believes the spark is catching. Unleash the power. Rise from the ashes once again."
— Mayor Bill Bishop (@JaxMayorBishop) February 6, 2015
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.”
