For more than four years, comments posted under anonymous screen names on Tallahassee Reports took aim at a wide range of prominent local political figures, elected officials and community leaders. The comments were often personal, sarcastic and sharply critical, while at other times displaying detailed knowledge of Tallahassee’s political relationships and controversies.
Tallahassee Reports’ investigation has identified the commenter as Ryan Ray, a City of Tallahassee employee who also serves as chairman of the Leon County Democratic Party and has worked as an aide to City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow. The table below presents a selection of the comments attributed to Ray, organized by the individuals who were discussed.
The comments span from December 2020 through October 2024 and target people across the political spectrum. Among those discussed are City Commissioner Curtis Richardson, County Commissioners Rick Minor and Bill Proctor, State Rep. Allison Tant, State Attorney Jack Campbell, School Board members Darryl Jones and Laurie Cox, political consultant Jon Ausman, former County Commissioner Mary Ann Lindley and others.
Some comments amounted to conventional political criticism. Others were considerably more personal. Richardson was ridiculed over his age and mental acuity and told that “Nobody will miss Curtis when he’s gone.” Minor was called a “classic spineless career politician,” while Ausman was attacked over his personal life and described as having “no credibility.”
The significance of the comments is not simply their harsh tone. They were published behind a collection of screen names that presented themselves to TR readers as independent voices. The following excerpts allow readers to examine, in Ray’s own words, what those anonymous identities were saying about some of Tallahassee’s most recognizable public figures.
Adam Jacobs
A comment also raises questions about the source of information Commissioner Jeremy Matlow later used in a public attack on City Manager Reese Goad. On Nov. 12, 2023, a comment attributed by TR’s investigation to Ryan Ray stated flatly, “Adam Jacobs is also Reese Goad’s son in law.” The claim was wrong: Goad’s son-in-law is Jacob Adams, not City employee Adam Jacobs. More than two years later, Matlow publicly accused Goad and Jacobs of nepotism and “public corruption” while criticizing the city’s handling of a federal housing grant. After learning the two men were not related, Matlow apologized to Goad, Jacobs and Adams for the mistaken identification. The earlier anonymous comment is significant because it contains the same unusual name mix-up—Adam Jacobs for Jacob Adams—that later appeared in Matlow’s accusation. The records reviewed by TR do not establish that Matlow obtained the information directly from Ray or from the anonymous comment. However, the identical error provides a potential link to the origin of the false information and raises the question of whether the November 2023 comment was an early source, or reflected information circulating among Matlow’s political associates, that ultimately found its way into Matlow’s May 2026 allegations.
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