{"id":356572,"date":"2026-07-29T19:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/356572\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T19:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:04:07","slug":"matlow-responds-to-parks-criticism-over-controversial-tallahassee-commission-race-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/356572\/","title":{"rendered":"Matlow responds to Parks\u2019 criticism over controversial Tallahassee Commission race post"},"content":{"rendered":"

Candidates for Tallahassee Mayor are dueling from the podium just weeks ahead of the August primary elections.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Matlow held a press conference Wednesday in response to a news conference held by fellow candidate Daryl Parks earlier in the week. Both candidates used their time to criticize how the other handled leaked op ed information in a different race.<\/p>\n

The issue started when a Facebook account called \u201cTallahassee Conservatives\u201d published bodycam footage and emails<\/a> of Tallahassee Commission Seat 3 Candidate Talethia Edwards after her car was towed in Orlando for using an expired handicap sticker in 2023.<\/p>\n

But the account had recently been renamed. It was previously used as an account opposing the TMH\/FSU merger, and had political ads paid for by Matlow\u2019s campaign.
That didn\u2019t sit well with mayoral candidate Daryl Parks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to mislabel conservatives, right, and make it look like the conservative part of this of this community was saying this about a black woman,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Monday<\/a>, Parks held a news conference accusing Matlow\u2019s campaign of a deliberate attempt to mislead Tallahassee voters.<\/p>\n

Two days later, Matlow held his own presser on the same spot, criticizing Parks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used a microphone in front of City Hall to lodge a personal attack against me, much like John Dailey has done for the last eight years, and to advocate for a candidate that has been hand-selected by the city hall majority. \u201cThe people of Tallahassee are not interested in another mayor that wants to use this platform to bully and settle personal scores,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Matlow denies knowing about the Facebook post. His former campaign manager, Kristellys Estanga, took credit for the post, and resigned from his campaign.
Matlow did take time at the podium to discuss Edwards\u2019 bodycam footage.<\/p>\n

\u201cParks’ chosen candidate in this race has accused the Orlando Police Department of illegally towing her car and planting a bomb in her vehicle, Parks’ chosen candidate told law enforcement she was an honorary member of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Parks’ candidate failed to appear again and again when summoned to court. Yet somehow, Mr. Parks is using this situation to launch a personal attack against my character. This frankly falls short of anybody who aspires to be Mayor of Tallahassee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While no official endorsements have been made, Matlow has been seen at political events with a different candidate running for Tallahassee City Commission Seat Three\u2014PJ Perez.<\/p>\n

The winner in each race could significantly impact the balance of power on the city commission, altering the entrenched 3-2 split that has dominated the body since 2020. <\/p>\n

The candidates will be on the ballot during the Aug. 18th primaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Candidates for Tallahassee Mayor are dueling from the podium just weeks ahead of the August primary elections. Jeremy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-356572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}