Every alderman has the same number of constituents, but it does not follow that they all have the same number of Twitter followers. Only half the members of the City Council even have a Twitter account, and of those who do, not all of them use it.
Alderman Nicholas Sposato set up an account and wrote “I took down the MACHINE!!!!!!” as his bio, then never tweeted.
Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. has only tweeted once, on March 5, 2011: “I’ve had a Twitter account for awhile, but I’m going to start using it now! What should I tweet about?”
The City Council’s champion tweeter is Ald. Bob Fioretti, who has sent out 6,811 messages, constantly updating his constituents about meetings, parties, street repairs and new store openings. But Fioretti’s is not the most popular stream. He’s 28 followers behind Ald. Joe Moreno, who represents a ward where people do most of their socializing on smart phones and laptops.
Politicians love competition, especially when it’s for publicity and popularity, so here are the Twitter rankings (in terms of followers), with handles, by ward.
1. Joe Moreno (Alderman_Moreno) 2,692
2. Bob Fioretti (Fioretti2ndWard) 2,664
4. Will Burns (Ald4_WillBurns) 1,669
6. Roderick Sawyer (RoderickTSawyer) 316
7. Sandi Jackson (SandiJackson1) 1,003
10. John Pope (AldermanPope) 281
12. George Cardenas (Ald12) 146
18. Lona Lane (Lona_Lane) 25
20. Willie B. Cochran (ALDERMANWBC) 260
22. Ricardo Munoz (AldermanMunoz22) 870
25. Danny Solis (AldermanSolis) 1,097
27. Walter Burnett Jr. (AldermanBurnett) 469
28. Jason Ervin (AldermanErvin) 1,081
30. Ariel Reboyras (Ald_Reboyras) 341
32. Scott Waguespack (Ward32Chicago) 431
35. Rey Colon (KingDove) 166
36. Nicholas Sposato (AldermanSposato) 298
37. Emma Mitts (EmmaMittsAld37) 77
42. Brendan Reilly (AldReilly) 1,024
43. Michele Smith (AldermanSmith43) 805
44. Tom Tunney (AldTomTunney) 1,782
45. John Arena (JohnArena445) 530
46. James Cappleman (JamesCappleman) 1,204
47. Ameya Pawar (Alderman_Pawar) 1,485
48. Harry Osterman (48Ward) 454
49. Joe Moore (JoeMoore49) 933
50. Debra Silverstein (Debra4Alderman) 331
Mayor Rahm Emanuel (ChicagosMayor) by the way, has 13,436 followers, five times many as any alderman. Who’s the boss?
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