Twenty-nine of Chicago's 50 aldermen have Twitter accounts. RedEye got the skinny from four of the more prolific tweeters in our fair city's legislative body.
Ald. Joe Moreno (1st)
Handle: @Alderman_Moreno
Tweets: More than 2,900
Followers: More than 2,000
Joined: April 9, 2010
Tweets on average: 4.6 times per day
Weapon of choice: iPhone
Quotable: "It's not a toy, it's a tool. But you need to use it effectively. Face-to-face will never be replaced." —Ald. Moreno
Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd)
Handle: @FiorettiChicago
Tweets: More than 5,400
Followers: More than 1,900
Joined: Sept. 27, 2010
Tweets on average: 12 times per day
Weapon of choice: BlackBerry
Quotable: "It's not time-consuming at all. It's immediate and direct and people respond right away. I find a lot of the people in my ward use it and it's a good way to stay in touch with them. It's a good way of just being accessible and reachable." —Ald. Fioretti
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th)
Handle: @AldermanErvin
Tweets: More than 370
Followers: 920
Joined: Jan. 24, 2011
Tweets on average: Once per day
Weapon of choice: Android
Quotable: "The community is very diverse. It's definitely part of the strategy to reach out to as many people as possible." —TyJuan Cratic, a spokesman for Ervin who helps with the alderman's Twitter account
Ald Roderick Sawyer (6th)
Handle: @6thWardChicago
Tweets: More than 430
Followers: 320
Joined: April 8, 2011
Tweets on average: 1.6 times per day
Weapon of choice: BlackBerry
Quotable: "Our goal has definitely been to be more interactive. We wanted to broaden the community's ability to contact the office, which means more than traditional office hours—it's meeting the people where they are." —Brian Sleet, Sawyer's chief of staff
KALYN BELSHA IS A REDEYE SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR.
