Chicago's Tweetiest Aldermen

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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