Commission candidate alleges Decker doesn’t reside in Ronan district

Josh Senecal, a candidate for Commission District 3, filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices Feb. 29, alleging that incumbent Lake County Commissioner Gale Decker, who has filed for reelection, does not reside in the district he serves.

Commission District 3 includes portions of both Polson and Ronan, bordered by 7th Ave., Hillcrest and Hwy. 35 in Polson to the north, Round Butte and Terrace Lake roads to the south, the Flathead River to the west and Mission Mountains to the east.

Senecal contends that Decker has engaged in “deceptive election practices” because he lives at 37814 Queen Point Lane in Polson, which is in Commission District 1, although his Declaration for Nomination and Oath of Candidacy show his address as 33270 Glinnwater Lane in Ronan.

That location has no dwelling, notes Senecal in his complaint, “no house to live in.”

Senecal also includes Decker’s mileage receipts, which show a nearly 14-mile roundtrip to and from his home to the office in the Lake County Courthouse. The property at Glinnwater Lane is 13.2 miles one way, according to Google Maps, or a 26.4-mile roundtrip.  

Senecal also includes a segment of the Montana Code Annotated, 7-4-2104, titled “Commissioners to be elected by district.” The code stipulates that candidates must have resided in the county and the district for at least two years prior to the general election.

Senecal asks Chris Gallus, the Commissioner of Political Practices, to remove Decker’s name from the primary ballot because he doesn’t currently live in the district and hasn’t lived in District 3 for the last two years, and “was not truthful on his Declaration for Nomination and Oath of Candidacy.”  

In a response filed last Thursday, Decker writes that he has lived in District 3 since 1959 “with no break in residency” and owned two pieces of property there before selling one parcel to his grandson more than a decade ago.

He and his former wife had planned to build a house at the Glinnwater Lane address, but after his spouse died in 2009 and following his subsequent remarriage in 2012, Decker admits, “I currently do not sleep at my residence,” staying instead at the Polson address that he doesn’t own, with his spouse.  

Still, Decker writes, he has continued to make improvements and pay taxes on his property in Ronan, spending time there “nearly every day for nine months of the year,” and votes, attends church, banks and receives “my important mail” in Ronan. His longtime physician is in Ronan; and, having taught at the Ronan School District for more than 30 years, he continues to serve as a volunteer coach for basketball, cross-country and track, and to promote the Ronan community as chairman of the Ronan Hall of Fame committee.

He includes a copy of MCA 12-1-112, “Rules for determining residence,” which reads, in part, that individuals don’t lose residency by going “to another state or district of this state for temporary purposes with the intention of returning” unless they vote in a different state or district.

The same statute also reads, “A change of residence may be made only by the act of removal joined with intent to remain in another place.”

Decker contends he as “no intention of changing my residence,” and mentions as proof investments he’s made to the Ronan property such as installing underground utilities and a buried sprinkler system and planting a vegetable garden.  

He also includes a letter from local attorney Chuck Wall citing Montana code and Supreme Court rulings that support Decker’s claim. Wall writes, “for the purposes of residency within the upcoming election” the incumbent is “a registered elector in, and your legal residence is located within … District 3.”

In a letter to Senecal, Gallus writes that his options are to dismiss the complaint or conduct a formal investigation and, if prosecution is justified, refer the matter to the county attorney.

Since these documents were filed, Max Krantz has added his name to the list of three other Republicans vying for the job: Decker, Senecal and Wes Baertsch. Krantz also ran for the county commission in 2022 against incumbent Steve Stanley, who represents District 3.

    Lake County Commission District Map (courtesy of Lake County GIS Department)