OTTAWA, Kan. — KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Franklin and Douglas counties in Kansas. Share your story idea with Lily.
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With a national focus on the Kansas midterm election, national pro-data center political action committees (PAC) are filtering funds and messaging into the Sunflower State.
On Wednesday, NBC News reported pro-data center super PAC Building the Future is spending more than $1.5 million to support Sen. Ty Masterson, the Republican candidate in the Kansas governor race.
Defend U.S., a super PAC out of Virginia, is sending mailers to households in Ottawa, Kansas, as residents vote on a citizen-led proposed ordinance to ban data centers in town for 10 years.
“If you take a trip up and down I-35, you’ll see it big as day," Ottawa resident Michael Lewis said. "They have those 50-foot billboards out there.”
Lewis is talking about multiple billboards along Interstate 35 that read "VOTE NO On the Data Center Question."
A group of Ottawa and Franklin County residents formed a coalition known as Ottawa United Inc. amid a proposed 300-acre data center development on the south side of town.
The group rallied this summer to gain enough signatures on an initiative petition to put a data center question on the November ballot.
In a lawsuit filed in August, Lewis and Ottawa resident Kim Conard alleged the city ignored the petition.
On Oct. 20, a judge ruled in favor of Lewis, Conard and Ottawa United. City residents are now voting on whether to put a ban on data center development in Ottawa for 10 years.
Now, Ottawa United is fighting something bigger.
It's unclear who funded the billboards along I-35.
Super PAC Defend U.S. is listed as the sender of multiple mailers Lewis received at his home.
Jessica Christopher, a Franklin County Ottawa United member, says she's received multiple calls and texts in-favor of data center development in Ottawa.
“We can’t outspend," Christopher said. "We don’t have billboards on every corner, and out of town, we aren’t sending out mailers; we’re door knocking.”
Christopher lives near Proximity Park, where the city and developer Lightfield Energy were planning a data center development. She wrote the proposed data center ordinance for Ottawa United.
"At the end of the day, this is Ottawa, this isn’t what happens nationwide; this is what happens in our backyard," she said.
It's an issue Christopher says is non-partisan.
It's evident along East Logan Street. While neighbors across the street from one another sport yard signs for candidates from across the aisle, both residents also have Ottawa United's "Vote Yes" sign placed in their lawns.
“It’s showing the resolve in our community, that in the face of outside spending, that we’re still united, we’re still Ottawa, we’re still Ottawa United," Lewis said.
KSHB 41 News reached out to Masterson with questions and for a statement in response to NBC News' Wednesday report. A response was not issued by the time of this publication.
Ty Masterson is a pay-to-play politician, and out-of-state tech companies are spending millions to buy him the governorship. No one spends that kind of money without expecting something in return, and Masterson will pay them back with a data center in every cornfield while everyday Kansans foot the bill. As governor, I'll end the corruption, put real guardrails on data centers, and answer to the people of Kansas, not special interests.
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