By MARC LEVY, Associated Press<\/p>\n
HARRISBURG \u2014 Democrat Paige Cognetti<\/a> is taking a shot at artificial intelligence data centers<\/a> in her challenge to freshman Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, saying \u201cwe are not for sale\u201d in a new TV ad in a swing Pennsylvania congressional district where communities are fighting data center projects.<\/p>\n The race between Cognetti, the mayor of Scranton, and Bresnahan, of Dallas Twp., is considered one of the Democratic Party\u2019s best opportunities<\/a> to pick up a seat in the November election in its bid to take control of the U.S. House and block President Donald Trump\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n Cognetti is airing the ad in a district that\u2019s been buffeted by AI data center projects and as the opposition to data centers<\/a> that has upended races for local offices across the country is spreading to top-of-the-ticket contests<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking to the camera, Cognetti invokes the region\u2019s industrial heritage as a coal and shale gas powerhouse, saying, \u201cBig companies have come before, taken what they wanted and left us with their mess to clean up. Now it\u2019s data centers.\u201d<\/p>\n She then criticizes the secrecy that developers often use to veil details of projects from the public, the tax breaks developers often get from states and the rising electric bills<\/a> that have hit the mid-Atlantic region to satisfy the growing energy demand of data centers<\/a>, which house rows of computers for storing, processing and transmitting data.<\/p>\n \u201cBig Tech needs to pay their own way. Not hide behind NDAs. No tax breaks. Don\u2019t raise our electric bills, don\u2019t poison our water. And hire local, union labor,\u201d Cognetti says.<\/p>\n If not, \u201cthen get out,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is our home. We are not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has made data centers a top priority<\/a> to help the U.S. compete against China for AI superiority<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, communities across the U.S. have fought many of the projects, including in Northeast Pennsylvania, where complexes of data centers and new high-voltage transmission lines are planned. Fights between communities and developers have landed in court.<\/p>\n The 30-second ad will run on broadcast TV channels, cable and digital platforms, Cognetti\u2019s campaign said. It is costing about $200,000 for the initial run of two weeks.<\/p>\n Bresnahan has introduced legislation called the Local Control Protection Act, which he says would put limits on a corporation\u2019s right to sue over local zoning decisions denying an application to build a data center.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should never let billion-dollar corporations supersede the voices of those who live in the community,\u201d Bresnahan said in a statement accompanying the bill\u2019s introduction in June.<\/p>\n The bill has yet to move out of committee or gain a cosponsor.<\/p>\n Republicans have made protecting Bresnahan a high priority. Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance visited the district last year.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n This story has been corrected to show Cognetti said \u201cwe are,\u201d not \u201cwe\u2019re.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Follow Marc Levy at http:\/\/twitter.com\/timelywriter<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t