New York signed a one-year moratorium on hyperscale data center construction on August 31, after 30 approval applications arrived at once, five of them pending in St. Lawrence County. Hochul defends the pause as a response to power and utility-bill concerns rather than election-year politics, and points to Loudoun County, where she says residents now have buyer's remorse as utility bills and property taxes rise. A separate AI review of state rules produced thousands of recommendations, the first 50 saving over 1.5 million hours. The discussion has since turned to whether the issue moves voters: LiPetri says data centers are not a top concern in New York's 3rd District.