independencemo.news

By Gordon L. McBride          

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         INDPENDENCE, MO, April 4, 2026--When voters go to the polls Tuesday to elect two council members and a mayor, they will be participating in what some see as a referendum on the city’s March 2 decision that cleared the way for a data center on the city’s eastern border.

          When asked if she saw the election as a referendum, data center opponent spokesperson Rachel Gonzalez said, “I do.”

          Her Facebook-based group, “Stop the AI Data Center in Independence,” has amassed over 100,000 followers from across the United States.  The group has mobilized its followers, encouraging followers to vote early, offered voters rides to the polls and, generally, raised consciousness in the city surrounding the stop the data center movement.

         The group has not stated which candidates that it supports, though Gonzalez makes no secret of her support for Kevin King for mayor and Jackie Dorman for council person at-large.  She does not name a favorite for the other seat.

         The three other at-large contenders, Lucy Young, Jared Fears and Cody Atkinson support the computer facility, as does King.  King contends that while he supports the data center he would have preferred a slower selection  process and a public vote, similar to the No Data Center group.

         King enjoys support from the building trade unions that see the data center as a rich prospect for jobs, especially during construction.

         Bridget McCandless, the other mayoral candidate and sitting at-large council member, faces the greatest risk in Tuesday’s election.  While she won the primary by a comfortable margin, should a large number of Mike Huff’s camp along with the remnants of Brice Stewat’s camp support King, the race could tighten, giving the stop-the-data-center group the mandate that it hopes for.

         A loss in her campaign for mayor would mean that McCandless would lose her voice on the council as her council seat expires with this election.

         If King and Jackie Dorman were to win their race, that would put the Gonzalez group one vote away from overturning the council’s March decision, sidelining the data center.  Dorman polled a distant fourth in the primary election with 16 per cent of the race.  Dorman opposes the data center.  With Fears the leader in the primary, Dorman would need to pull ahead of the two other at-large candidates, Lucy Young and Cody Atkinson. 

          When asked if she had second thoughts about opposing McCandless, the candidate with chief executive experience, city administration experience along with local political experience, making her the stronger candidate on paper, Gonzalez said that she did not.

         “Bridget has turned into a politician,” Gonzalez says. 

For Jared Fears the challenge is not so steep.  If Dorman, a fourth-place finisher in the February primary, were to win an at-large seat, Fears would then only need to defeat two data center supporters, something he has already done. 

         The quiet issue underlying the election is the city’s shrinking tax base.  Independence’s main revenue source is sales tax, a source that has been shrinking.  With sales tax generators like Independence Center losing tenants like Macy’s and Sears, along with a host of smaller retailers, sales tax revenues has shrunk.  Past city manager Zach Walker in his May 12 2025-26 city budget presentation drew attention to the fact that as revenues shrink, vital city service would have to be cut.

         His presentation was filled with terms like: “growth from tax receipts is minimal,” “resource restricted environment,” “flat revenue growth.”  Not a presentation that is highlighting expanded city services.

         And that was not the first time that he had delivered that message.

         The declining tax base has been a council concern for years   Development of the property where the data center is to be located has been seen as at least a partial, if not total, solution to the tax revenue problem. 

         The mayor, despite his no vote on the Chapter 100 legislation, called the data center “transformation” in consideration of the increased revenue it would bring to the city.  (Sales tax from the expanded electrical utility associated with the data center is expected to be $25 million annually.)

         Council members McCandless and Fears are in the position of having been elected to a public position that is facing serious revenue problems and, having come up with a solution, are facing withering resistance.  The election will determine if the data center opponents represent a majority of the community’s thinking or that of a smaller sector, though without an outright defeat of either or both of the two, there is little chance that a definitive outcome with present itself.   

         As a side note, the city charter’s restrictive stance on what referendum petitions are allowed is what led to Gonzalez’s group’s inability to force an election on the data center’s future.  This would be a natural area for Gonzalez and her forces to turn their attention.