Watch the selective advocacy in action.

A data center is on the table in Shawnee County. The people who live closest to it — the farmers, the neighbors, the regular residents — have made their position clear. They don’t want it. They’ve looked at the water demands, the power load, the noise, the traffic, and the long-term impacts, and decided the trade-offs don’t add up for them. That’s a legitimate point of view.

Go Topeka is involved. They’re facilitating. They’re making introductions. They’re treating it like a priority project in the pipeline. Suddenly this is the kind of development that deserves their full attention and support.

Now go back to the Maverik deal on Fairlawn.

A private company wanted to take a blighted, long-vacant site and put a real business on it — a convenience store and fueling station that would generate sales tax, property tax, and actual economic activity. The kind of project that used to be the definition of economic development. The kind of project that creates ongoing revenue for the city instead of just construction jobs and press releases.

The City Council killed it 9-1. Only David Banks voted for it. And where was Go Topeka — the organization whose job is to chase sales-tax-generating private investment and remove obstacles for business? Nowhere. Silent. Or worse, quietly aligned with the interests that wanted the project dead because the wrong neighbors didn’t want trucks near them.

This is the pattern.

When a private company wants to create real sales tax on dead land, Go Topeka disappears. When a massive industrial facility shows up that half the surrounding community opposes, Go Topeka finds its voice and its energy.

Selective advocacy isn’t economic development. It’s something else. It’s the consistent prioritization of whatever serves the right people at the right time over any consistent principle, over the taxpayers, and over the people who actually live with the consequences.

I don’t have to love the data center to notice the inconsistency. I just have to watch the record.

The Maverik deal should have been the easy one. Sales tax. Blighted site. Private capital. Minimal public risk. Go Topeka should have been the loudest voice in the room fighting for it. Instead, they were missing in action while the only council member willing to stand alone was David Banks.

Now the data center gets the full treatment.

Same organization. Completely different level of enthusiasm. That’s not strategy. That’s selective advocacy. And it’s been the operating system for a while.

I can’t wait to see how they explain this one when people start connecting the dots.