JANESVILLE — Six candidates are vying for three open seats on the Janesville City Council in the April 7 general election, with the highest profile issue being the proposed data center on the former GM/JATCO site on the city’s south side.
Candidates are:
- Shane Seeman for Janesville City Council
- Cassandra Pope for Janesville City Council
- Ben Dobson for Janesville City Council
- Reese Wood for Janesville
- Larry Squire Candidate for Janesville City Council (incumbent)
- Paul Williams (incumbent)
- Robert Hanson is on the ballot, but is no longer running.
There have been multiple community forums and surveys for residents to learn candidates’ views on the data center, as well as other issues including affordable housing, TIFs and taxes.
Voters can learn more here:
WCLO live forums, March 23-27, 10 a.m. Every day they’ll examine the six council candidates’ feelings on a particular area of interest to residents of Janesville. SCHEDULE AND TOPICS (They’ll cover the data center on Friday)
Forward Janesville candidate questionnaires READ HERE
Jan. 22 Rock County Civics Academy forum VIDEO HERE
Feb. 18 Rock County Civics Academy forum VIDEO HERE
March 12 League of Women Voters forum VIDEO HERE.
Below are excerpts of candidates’ positions on the data center from the Jan. 22 and Feb. 18 Rock County Civics Academy forums.
UPDATE: View additional comments in the Facebook replies HERE.
At the forum on Feb 18, candidates were asked:
“With a citizen initiated referendum on the November ballot concerning major development at the GM/JATCO site, would you support pausing any further action on the data center project until voters have weighed in? Why or why not?” VIDEO HERE
Ben Dobson
For me, the very easy answer is absolutely things should be paused until November. If this is such a great plan, why don’t we trust the citizen’s to vote on it? They should have the opportunity to do it before the council makes any other decision that would impact that site. I am fearful things will move quickly and possibly be set in stone before November.
Larry Squire
I think the city can continue to do the due diligence that’s out there right now so we can all learn as much as we can between now and November. If you look at the timeline that’s out there, this is probably 18 months to 24 months away from a development agreement. We need to keep moving forward with our due diligence. We can say no whenever we want.
Reese Wood
I would have been in favor of pausing. With the petition there’s an outcry in the community in large enough numbers. When asked about a decision the council got wrong, Wood said he would have supported immediately putting the No Data Center petition on the April ballot. “The number of people who signed that petition speaks for itself, and I believe that level of public support deserves a direct vote.”
Paul Williams
I would not support pausing. Veridian has spent a lot of money so far and I think it would be a disservice not only to them but to other businesses that may be looking to come to Janesville and saying, “well we can go there and spend a lot of money and if there’s a petition they may put us on pause or put it to referendum so we’ll look elsewhere.”
Shane Seeman
I think I would pause. At the state level, there are not a lot of guardrails or backstops to these types of developments. It has to come down to us. This is a huge project and bigger than any one single project has ever been in Janesville and we don’t even know who the end clients of this data center might be.
Cassandra Pope
(She was unable to attend the Feb. 18 forum, gave this answer on Jan. 22 at the 35 minute mark. VIDEO)
I am very against the data center. The environmental and health impacts alone make this way too risky of an option for our community. I feel like this is being very fast tracked and a lot of this is being done behind closed doors. We’ve had over 4,000 people raise their voices to say this is not what we want and that seems to be being disregarded.
The general election is April 7, 2026. In-person absentee, or early voting, begins March 24.