On data centers
There’s an age-old saying in politics: follow the money. As detailed in the Substack Seeking Rents, the data center industry is investing heavily in Florida politics this election cycle. Jason’s opponent, State Senator Jennifer Bradley, who is also Chair of the Senate’s powerful Regulated Industries Committee, is one of those recipients. We’ve identified a staggering nearly $320,000 in corporate dollars that have been donated to her political committee “Women Building the Future” from data center interests. These donors include >$100,000 from the state’s monopoly utilities, who hope to sell more power to the industry, as well as the likes of Meta and Microsoft. So what future exactly is she building?
There’s another old saying which bears repeating here: watch what they do, not what they say. While Bradley has posted a few populist-sounding messages on her social media account as of late, voters have reason for skepticism:
She does not have a stated policy position on data centers. In fact, she doesn’t have any stated policy positions. She hasn’t answered Ballotpedia’s candidate questions and even her campaign website is still circa 2020. Jason has a very straightforward policy position on this topic that has been available to the voters for months: one that emphasizes community protections, local control, and integrity.
In one of her rare social media posts on this topic, she touts the “sweeping reforms” on this issue that were passed by the Florida legislature last session. What she doesn’t say is that, after Florida Power & Light put their thumb on the scale, the version of this legislation that was passed was actually the weaker of the two options before the legislature. In fact, as investigative journalist Jason Garcia points out, the industry is actually quite happy with this legislation. As the head of TECO’s parent company (another energy monopoly) stated only weeks after the legislation was signed, “Recently, Gov. DeSantis passed legislation that sets a clear path for data center development in the state…”
She certainly hasn’t returned any of those corporate donations. Despite not having any political opposition since she was first elected in 2020, Bradley has amassed millions of dollars in corporate contributions, including those from the data center industry. She stated recently in response to questions about her campaign contributions, “I am not motivated by any contribution that is received or not.” So then why are they writing her checks for $5k, $10k, $20k at a time? Jason, on the other hand, has not taken a single dollar from corporate interests, preferring to be beholden to the voters of his district.
Given these disturbing trends and the Florida legislature’s rampant penchant for attacks on local control, Jason has issued this stark warning to voters: “Unless we send different representation to Tallahassee, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that we will see, in the very next legislative session, a bill that preempts our local communities’ ability to say ‘no’ to these data centers. With the election behind them and their corporate donors calling to collect, these corrupt politicians will sell us out yet again to private interests. And our communities will be left with the consequences. Vote for new representation this November, people who will stand up to the industry rather than bending the knee.”
