We’re trying something different and need your help to pull it off.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is renting a hall (Turner Hall ballroom on Wednesday, July 29 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.), inviting the top Democratic and Republican candidates for governor and giving you (our readers and community members) an opportunity to ask them questions about data centers in Wisconsin.
You read that right. Your questions are at the heart of the evening. Send us your suggested questions here. We’ll pick a handful of the best and give you the opportunity to quiz the candidates yourself during the town hall.
This event will happen about two weeks before the Aug. 11 primary, when voters will select the final nominees in the November election to be Wisconsin’s next governor.
Why are we focusing on a single topic as opposed to a cornucopia of questions?
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is leaving office along with the GOP leaders of the Assembly and Senate, who join a list of 15 Republicans not seeking re-election. There is no topic better than data centers to get a sense of how our next governor will lead in a new era of Wisconsin politics.
Hyper-scale data centers — massive warehouses that stretch over hundreds of acres, are packed with thousands of servers, routers, and data storage drives that power global internet services and artificial intelligence — have emerged as a unicorn issue, one that doesn’t fall neatly into the partisan buckets that define politics today.
Think about the process – from how companies are recruited, sites chosen and permits approved to ongoing issues around water use and energy costs. Throw in questions about zoning and land usage, and the state’s economic overall competitiveness.
In short, candidate views on data centers provide a snapshot of how they view state vs. local control, business growth, utility costs, environmental protections, the use of government tax incentives and more.
We invited the top candidates to answer a detailed questionnaire and to submit a 2-minute video outlining how their administration would approach data centers.
We’ll post the answers to the questions and play their videos to start the town hall, and work in some of your key questions. After the formal program ends at 7:30 p.m., we’ll spread out the candidates, pull up chairs and give you a chance to ask even more questions.
So far we have confirmed attendance from Democrats Mandela Barnes, Joel Brennan, David Crowley, Francesca Hong, Missy Hughes and Kelda Roys. We will update this list as more details become available.
Like our February data center town hall, which focused on water and energy issues, the focus is on getting your questions answered.
We hope the event creates a unique forum where people can talk and learn about one of the defining issues of our time. It won’t be complete without you. Sign up here for free tickets.
Jim Fitzhenry is the Ideas Lab Editor/Director of Community Engagement for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Reach him at jfitzhen@gannett.com or 920-993-7154.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Get answers to your data center questions at July forum | Opinion
Reporting by James N. Fitzhenry, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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