On Friday, October 16, campaigns were required to report their campaign donations. Novak’s report was loaded with donations from lobbyists, PACs, and special interests, many of whom represent data centers, builders of data centers, utilities, or contractors who do business with the government.
Though he doesn’t say it openly, Novak is pro-data center. In his Vote411 answer on data centers, he claims he’s for “local control,” but that’s not what his donors want.
His report, which can be found here, shows contributions from lobbying firms with data center clients:
Corydon Group: Anthropic, EdgeConneX (a data center developer), and Vantage Data Centers.
Bose Public Affairs: Amazon and Meta.
Krieg DeVault: Google, the company behind Michigan City’s Project Maize.
Ice Miller: Amazon.
Ice Miller gets special mention. They contributed twice. They also represent Build Indiana Council, which is composed of road builders who lobby to increase tolls.
Novak received heavy contributions from unions that build data centers, including Laborers Local 81 Political Fund, Northern Indiana Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC, Operating Engineers Local 150, IN/KY/OH Regional Council of Carpenters COPE, Iron Workers Local 395 IPA, IBEW PAC Voluntary Fund, LaPorte, Starke & Pulaski Building Trades Council, Indiana State Iron Workers PAC, Indiana State Building & Construction Trades PAC, Laborers’ Local 41 PAC, and Carpenters Local 1485.
If you think there is any possibility that Novak will place any restrictions on data center development, read the list above again.
Money also came in from the utilities. Novak was careful not to take money from NIPSCO directly, but it came in indirectly from the lobbyists who represent utilities:
Corydon Group: Indiana Michigan Power (AEP), AES Clean Energy, Geenex Solar, Advanced Energy United, NIPSCO (via 1816 Public Affairs Group).
Krieg DeVault: Indiana Municipal Power Agency, CenterPoint Energy.
Bose Public Affairs: AES Indiana/IPALCO, DTE Energy.
Direct contributions came from Indiana Electric Cooperatives State PAC, Indiana American Water PAC, and two former NIPSCO executives.
And, as before, Novak took money from county contractors, in this case ones who do business with the LaPorte County Redevelopment Commission (RDC), of which Novak was president.
The RDC controls TIF districts. TIFs have often served as slush funds insiders use to reward favored contractors. TIF funds are entirely controlled by the board and its president. No elected officials get to vote on disbursements, and so it’s a prime way for insiders to steer money to their friends.
Novak took money from Matt Reardon, whose consulting firm receives payments from the RDC. Reardon marketed Kingsbury Industrial Park to data centers and presented the Microsoft data center TIF revenue-sharing deal to the RDC. Novak also took money from other entities that do business with the RDC, including Shaw Friedman (lawyer), Ice Miller (bond counsel), Thomas & Associates, Kingsbury Elevator, and Douglas Biege (lawyer).
Donors who receive other, non-RDC county money included USI Consultants (various bridge contracts) and DPBG PAC / American StructurePoint (other county work).
And, of course, more money came in from Marquiss and affiliated individuals, including various Skwiats and their employees.
Novak has made his loyalties clear. He’ll work for the data centers. He’ll proclaim opposition to the utilities publicly, but he’ll also take their money.