In election campaigns nationwide, data centers have emerged as a major issue and that includes the 8th Congressional District contest in Northeast Pennsylvania.
In a TV campaign commercial Democratic congressional candidate Paige Cognetti criticizes developers and calls out Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan for ties to the centers.
At the end of the commercial Cognetti, Scranton’s mayor, slams shut a laptop showing an online publication’s story on data centers and Bresnahan’s financial ties to them.
“Don't raise our electric bills. Don't poison our water. And hire local union labor. You can't meet that? Goodbye. Then get out,” Cognetti says. “This is our home. We are not for sale.”
But Bresnahan’s campaign accused Cognetti of hypocrisy on Tuesday for accepting thousands of dollars in contributions from individual lawyers at Myers, Brier & Kelly, a Scranton law firm that represents a local data center developer. The campaign also criticizes her for acting too slowly to regulate data centers in the city.
Cognetti’s campaign said none of the firm's lawyers who contributed to her campaign are working on the data center project in question and pointed to a Bresnahan statement last year welcoming data center investment and his investments in data center companies.
Bresnahan drafts data center bill
The debate over data centers in Northeast Pennsylvania began raging early last year as proposals across the region piled up.
In an April 2025 statement to The Times Leader newspaper in Wilkes-Barre for a story on the spread of data centers, Bresnahan spoke in favor.
“I am pleased to hear that companies are looking to Northeastern Pennsylvania for their data centers, which can serve as catalysts for economic growth and technological innovation for our region as we work towards fostering a 22nd century workforce,” Bresnahan said in the statement. “The second fastest growing industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania is energized land, which will help power these data centers. I look forward to these investments and encourage companies to look to Northeastern Pennsylvania as a home for economic and technological advancements.”
As opposition to data centers grew over the next year, Bresnahan saw the need for regulation. On June 11, he introduced a bill called the Local Control Protection Act.
The bill would forbid data center developers from challenging local government decisions on data centers in federal court if the decision “was made by a recorded vote along with documented findings.”
The bill would also forbid the federal government from issuing permits to a data center developer suing to overturn a local government decision “in any court.”
Developers also could not get federal tax credits unless they have a “legally enforceable agreement” with the local government. The agreement must address “local tax liabilities; infrastructure mitigation measures addressing road, water, stormwater, and utility impacts; environmental and noise monitoring protocols,” according to a copy of the bill.
Developers must also have a plan to hire local people for center-related jobs and a preference “for local contractors and subcontractors whenever qualified local firms are available.”
The bill has two co-sponsors, including U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, who represents the neighboring 9th Congressional District. Congress has not acted on it.
Bresnahan contends his bill, if adopted, would empower local communities asked to host data centers “to decide what's best for their friends, their families, and their neighbors.”
“The best form of government, in my opinion, is always a government closest to the people,” he said during a Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce forum Oct. 23. “Rob Bresnahan is not going to tell anyone what they're going to live next to, what they're going to tolerate.”
Cognetti pushes data center regulations
In January, Cognetti attended a public hearing, where residents opposed a data center proposal in Ransom Twp., Lackawanna County. She attended out of concern the center would produce runoff rain that would spawn flooding in neighboring Scranton.
She later attended several public hearings on proposals in Archbald and testified in opposition at one.
In March, her administration proposed amendments to the Scranton zoning ordinance to regulate data centers. The amendments will include definitions, allowable locations and requirements for landscaping, architecture, noise, vibration standards and studies and analyses on the effects on utility capacity, traffic, sound, water demand and supply sources and others.
City Council members praised the proposal and promised a public hearing on the amendments.
“I’m very happy that this is proactive or getting it out there,” Councilperson Sean McAndrew said. “And we’re mak(ing) sure we’re protecting our city.”
Councilperson Tom Schuster said introducing the amendments would allow the city time to see how proposed state bills play out.
“It’s going to give us time for public input and public comment,” Schuster said.
Four months later, council members showed some impatience. At their July 28 meeting, the last before the council’s traditional month-long summer break, McAndrew wondered about the amendments’ status.
“So can we please get some information over break so we could kind of see where we’re going with this?” he said.
The Bresnahan campaign has criticized Cognetti for slow walking the amendment ordinances. The campaign points out Cognetti’s data center ad began airing July 28, the same day McAndrew wondered about the delay.
On Tuesday, the City Council hosted a caucus focused on the amendments with top city officials and a consultant developing the amendments
McAndrew complained the administration provided no updates over the summer.
“Little updates like that would have went a long way here because we've been asking, and when we get no response, it's just like, well, what's going on?” he said.
Councilperson Mark McAndrew complained the administration was rushing the legislation and its expected consideration and passage in December will coincide with a busy city budget season.
“If you had that much time from March until now, I'd be a little more acceptive of (it) if we knew what was going on,” he said. “Time's always our enemy, and it shouldn't be.
Carolyn Yagle, the consultant developing the amendments, attributed the delays to waiting to see if data center legislation would pass the state General Assembly and evaluating the effects of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s executive order regulating data center development.
“We needed to ensure that we had a steady foot with all of those kinds of influences before coming here, and now we know that we do, and we're presenting this information with a solid stance on being able to understand things,” Yagle said.
City Solicitor Jessica Eskra acknowledged the amendments process would start all over again next year if the amendments weren't passed by the end of this year. She told council members their Tuesday caucus was the earliest date the administration was offered to present its findings.
“It is an over a month-long process,” Eskra said, referring to the time to final passage. “You'll have ample time to deliberate to discuss. We are highly attuned to this issue. We'll be incredibly responsive, and really do look forward to collaborating with you on it.”
The goal is to have the amendments completed and adopted by Dec. 16. No data center proposals have come before the city.
In a statement, Bresnahan spokesperson Samantha Bullock said that “while Bresnahan wrote the (Local Protection Act) bill, Paige Cognetti made “false promises” about data center legislation.
“It is awfully curious that she would wait until the week before an election after months of being called out by her own city council to even consider addressing an ordinance that would directly affect Scranton," Bullock said.
In a statement issued after the caucus, Cognetti noted the “many hours” she’s spent at meetings in other towns where data centers are planned.
“(I’ve been) with our neighbors throughout Lackawanna County as we have come together to stop reckless data center projects,” Cognetti said. “We are ready to protect our city and will continue to work with other municipalities to determine best practices and make sure we are protecting our entire region.”
Following the money
On Tuesday, the Bresnahan campaign cited $13,000 in contributions to Cognetti’s campaign in the last two years from lawyers at Myers, Brier & Kelly. It’s a Democratic Party-connected Scranton law firm representing DBT Data, a developer planning a data center in Jessup in Lackawanna County.
The contributions include $4,500 from attorney Robert T. Kelly Jr., who was WVIA's board chairman until earlier this year.
The Cognetti campaign said none of the firm’s lawyers who contributed to her are representing DBT Data. Firm attorney Neil Thatcher is listed as the lawyer for DBT. Federal campaign records show he has not contributed to Cognetti’s campaign.
Efforts to reach MBK attorneys were not immediately successful Friday.
Federal campaign records show Bresnahan’s campaign has accepted more than $8,700 directly from data center developers — $1,500 from Scott Linde, who’s planning a data center in Wayne County; and $7,260 from James Marzolino, who’s involved in companies that proposed data centers and natural gas power plants to supply them energy in Dickson City and Archbald.
Bresnahan owns stock in four companies that develop data centers — between $1,001 and $15,000 worth in Digital Realty Trust Inc., Iron Mountain Inc. and Equinix Inc.; and between $15,001 and $50,000 in SBA Communications, which owns a subsidiary that develops data centers, according to his financial disclosure forms.
He also has hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock with companies that supply equipment for data centers or rely on data centers, according to the forms.
Bresnahan has repeatedly said his financial advisers determine his stock investments, and he has nothing to do with investment decisions.
"Rep. Bresnahan went on a fact-finding mission to learn what would be best for Northeastern Pennsylvania and then drafted legislation to address it while Paige Cognetti's only concern was what position sounds best for her campaign,” Bullock said in a statement Wednesday, referring to the Local Protection Act.
She also said Cognetti was hypocritical for pledging to accept no corporate political action committee contributions but accepting contributions from PACs that do take corporate PAC donations.
In response, Cognetti campaign spokesperson Emma Mustion said Bresnahan has taken more than $350,000 from corporate PACs.
“Paige is the only candidate in this race who does not accept donations from corporate PACs, supports a federal ban on corporate PAC donations, and will never be handed a corporate check in exchange for special access or political favors,” Mustion said in an email. “That is a fact. The reason for her pledge is simple: Paige is independent and doesn’t work for anybody but the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
Bullock also questioned Cognetti making Bresnahan’s data center investments an issue when “the largest holding in her BlackRock retirement fund is NVIDIA, the company that makes the chips powering data centers, and nearly 40 percent of that fund is invested in AI and data center companies.”
Cognetti’s federal financial disclosure form shows she has between $1,001 and $15,000 invested in the BlackRock Large Cap Focus Growth Fund, a 401k retirement fund with a large portfolio of big tech stocks that rely on, develop or provide equipment to data centers like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Google and Amazon.
Bresnahan owns between $765,004 and $1.55 million in just these four stocks, including between $250,001 and $500,000 in NVIDIA stock alone, according to his financial disclosure forms.
In a statement, Cognetti pointed to Bresnahan’s extensive investments in data center-related stocks and vote for the original House version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would have banned state and local governments from regulating artificial intelligence for 10 years. (The state Senate stripped the provision and Bresnahan later voted for the Senate version, too.)
“Rob Bresnahan has embraced the data center boom while standing to profit from it. I’m focused on protecting NEPA from speculative developers and in Congress, I'll push for guardrails including a federal AI regulator,” Cognetti said. “NEPA has a long history of being taken advantage of by greedy corporations. I’ve been clear: we can’t let data center developers be the latest corporate interest using our community to line their pockets, only to leave us paying the price.”
Bullock said Bresnahan for the original version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act “to advance the largest working families tax cut in history knowing that it would not be the final version.”
“He supported the final bill which removed that provision and then introduced his own legislation to ensure local residents can maintain control over projects in their communities,” she said.
