Tallahassee’s mayoral race is heating up.
Much of the fire surrounds opposition research released last week by Jeremy Matlow’s now-resigned campaign manager. Other candidates in the race have called out Matlow’s campaign. They took issue with how it was published.
The opposition research is police bodycam footage of Talethia Edwards who is running for the Tallahassee commission. Her car was towed after officials say she used an expired handicap sticker in 2023.
A Facebook political organization account called “Tallahassee Conservatives” published the bodycam footage as well as emails Edwards allegedly sent to law enforcement.
But Daryl Parks, who is running for Mayor says the Facebook page had recently been renamed.
“They wanted to mislabel conservatives, right, and make it look like the conservative part of this community was saying this about a Black woman,” he said
Parks says the page was controlled by mayoral candidate Jeremy Matlow’s team. It was previously used as an account opposing the TMH/FSU merger, and had political ads paid for by Matlow’s campaign.
Parks held a press conference outside Tallahassee City Hall Monday to criticize the post.
He says he believes the goal was to pit conservatives against Black voters in Tallahassee.
“When you decide to put a different name on it, right, to cast a different light, to pit one group against another, and not put your name on it. That goes to your integrity, it goes to your character, and it goes to who you really are,” he said.
Opposition research being dropped and discussed on social media is not uncommon this election cycle. Years-old bodycam footage of one of Matlow’s staffers has been regularly circulated in recent weeks by Matlow’s opponents online. And another mayoral candidate has made references to Kristallnacht and the Holocaust in social media posts about Matlow’s former campaign manager, Kristellys Estanga.
When asked about why he didn’t speak out when the other bodycam footage was circulating, Parks says publishing the opposition under a changed name is what makes the Edwards video different.
“You're seeing campaign ads that are saying trust, trust, trust, right? But we also now see a situation where someone went and did a little sneaky move, right? And so people don't like sneakiness, and so I think that exposing this for what it is, right, is very important in this time,” he said.
In an interview with WFSU, Matlow said he was not aware of the Tallahassee Conservatives post before the media covered it and is focused on his race. He points out he’s not running against Edwards.
“I'm not running for seat three. I'm running for mayor of Tallahassee because I want to bring transparency to City Hall. I want to stop these backroom deals, and I think Tallahassee should be an affordable, quality city for everyone,” he said.
Estanga, Matlow’s former campaign manager, took credit for the Facebook name change and for posting the video about Edwards. Estanga has resigned from the Matlow campaign
