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January 11, 2024
Gov. Greg Gianforte and First Lady Susan Gianforte announced their purchase of a new house in Helena this week, pledging to donate the property to the state at the end of Gianforte’s time in office. (Gianforte is up for re-election in November.) While Gianforte said it will be up to the state to decide what to do with it, he seemed to suggest that the home might serve as Montana’s new official executive residence, with a spokesperson writing in a statement that “the governor is committed to ensuring future First Families have a governor’s residence that is in good repair, safe, healthy, and family-friendly, all while ensuring the state is a good steward of taxpayer resources.”
Apparent beneficence aside, there are myriad unanswered questions about what exactly such a property transfer would mean in practice, both for future governors and for the state’s official executive residence, a currently unoccupied Helena home in need of millions of dollars in repairs.
Among those unanswered questions is exactly who might be vested with authority to decide whether to accept the gift and what to do with it.
“Because this announcement was just made, we are early in the process of answering these questions,” Megan Grotzke, a spokesperson for the Montana Department of Administration, which oversees state-owned property, told Capitolized on Tuesday.
But before getting too deep in the muck on that front, a little history: Montana’s earliest governors were once in charge of their own housing. That changed in 1913, when the state purchased an 1888 Queen Anne-style mansion on Ewing Street in Helena.
That home, now a museum called the Original Governor’s Mansion, had grown shabby by the 1950s, and lawmakers and state officials began soliciting designs for a new executive residence. By 1959, far behind schedule and almost three times over the original legislative appropriation’s budget, construction was completed on the state’s current official executive residence, a 12,000-square feet politico pad with mid-century modern touches located at the intersection of Carson and Broadway streets in Helena. Gov. Hugo Aronson, “the Galloping Swede,” became the home’s first occupant that year.
By the beginning of Gianforte’s term in 2021, that residence had its own issues. Gianforte moved out of the home that year so the state could begin tackling the mansion’s sizable maintenance backlog, including asbestos remediation and plumbing repairs. He and the first lady then split their time between their privately owned residences in Helena and Bozeman, the governor’s home base.
The Legislature in 2019 had already appropriated almost $2 million for work on the 1959 mansion, and added an additional $440,500 to that allocation in the 2021 session. Work was initially scheduled to be finished by the end of 2022, but due to delays that the governor’s office and the Department of Administration have attributed to inflation, dearth of skilled labor and supply chain issues, it never really got off the ground. Last November, the state put work at the residence on hold indefinitely, having failed to find a contractor to do the work within the budget.
It’s in that context that this week the governor announced the purchase of the Samuel T. Hauser House, a 9-bedroom mansion built in 1885 by the industrialist and territorial governor of the same name. Counting Hauser, Gianforte will be the third governor to occupy the house. Gov. Tim Babcock, the state’s chief executive from 1962 to 1969, also lived at the Hauser house, where he installed a direct line to President Richard Nixon, a personal friend. (Babcock in 1974 also pleaded guilty to facilitating illegal campaign donations to Nixon as part of the Watergate scandal).
“We purchased the beautiful and historic Hauser House to call our home here in Helena, and to provide a space for the people of Montana to come together,” Gianforte said in a statement announcing the purchase. “Following my service, we will donate this home to the State and the people of Montana.”
Gianforte has not indicated what exactly that means for the state. Spokespeople for the governor directed all questions related to the current executive residence to the Department of Administration. But Grotzke, the department’s spokesperson, told Capitolized the agency doesn’t know the answers either.
As to the stalled plans for repairs to the currently official executive residence: “As Governor Gianforte only recently announced his intention to make this generous gift, we do not yet know how this may impact plans for the current residence.”
And as to the money that’s been appropriated for that project? “We do not yet know what may happen with respect to funds appropriated to repair the current residence. In general, a legislative appropriation is permission to spend public money. If funds are not expended for that authorized purpose, they remain in the fund where they are held and subject to appropriation.”
Even the legal definition of “executive residence” is up in the air. State Sen. Mary Ann Dunwell, a Democratic lawmaker from Helena who recently requested a legislative audit of the status of repairs to the executive residence, told Capitolized this week she doesn’t think the governor can unilaterally decide to change the location of the executive residence. But she also doesn’t know where that authority lies.
Grotzke pointed to three statutory references to the executive residence, none of which explicitly designates where it should be. One gives direction to the Capitol complex advisory council, another directs the Department of Administration to develop policies related to the residence’s maintenance and beautification, and the third requires an inventory of improvements to the residence. Other sections in code require that the governor and other statewide officials establish residence in Helena during their terms, but don’t specify where.
The potential addition of a new historic home to the state’s roster is idiosyncratic to the Gianforte administration. Gianforte, once one of Congress’ wealthiest members, is a multi-millionaire whose net worth was substantially buoyed by the sale of his tech company, RightNow Technologies, to Oracle in 2011. The ability to privately purchase a Helena mansion and propose to donate it as a gift to the state is, among recent governorships, distinctive to Gianforte’s.
But for now, the Hauser house is Gianforte’s private residence. Plans for the state’s official executive residence are as up in the air as ever. And what will actually happen to the Hauser house at the end of Gianforte’s tenure — whenever that might be — remains to be seen.
—Arren Kimbel-Sannit
New Chief at Commerce
The governor’s office has tapped freshman Rep. Paul Green, R-Hardin, to lead the Department of Commerce in the wake of former director Scott Osterman’s resignation last month.
“Paul has my full confidence, and he will make an outstanding director for the Department of Commerce,” Gov. Greg Gianforte said in a press release Wednesday. “Paul shares my vision to make our state an even better place for Montanans to live, work, and raise a family.”
Green, the surprise (to some observers) victor of a race for a seat in a predominantly Native American district in 2022, was involved in a number of bills related to the economy in the 2023 session, including one that emerged as the session’s main affordable housing spending package.
“I’m honored by the confidence Governor Gianforte and his administration have placed in me to lead the Montana Department of Commerce and showcase the innovative industries, main street businesses, and hardworking people that make up our state,” Green, who previously served as executive director of the Two Rivers Economic Development Authority, said in a statement. “Together with the talented team at Commerce, we’ll continue to advance the governor’s priorities so more Montanans can grow their businesses, create good-paying jobs, and achieve the American dream.”
Green will replace Osterman, who resigned in December after an internal investigation challenged the propriety of his expenditure of more than $26,000 in state funds.
—Eric Dietrich and Arren Kimbel-Sannit
Touchy Talk in Education Committee
“A lot of the stuff in here like colonialism, enslavement, collectivism, hyper-individualism, all these different things, they’re diametrically opposed and none of them create unity. If we solely focus on Indigenous existence and ignore the fact that every native-born American in fact has an indigenous connection to the land, instead of creating unity we create division.”
—Sen. Daniel Emrich, R-Great Falls, responding to a presentation to lawmakers Wednesday by two national education policy firms on the challenges raised for educators and students by cultural, sociological and technological shifts in American society.
A suggestion floated by one presenter, Ulcca Joshi Hansen of Grantmakers for Education, was that lawmakers explore a more “human-centered” approach to classroom instruction. Hansen’s attempt to illustrate the differences between conventional education and a more holistic model caught Emrich’s eye. His comment singled out a handful of her slides, zeroing in on language that has fueled growing division in politicized debates about public education.
—Alex Sakariassen
Campaign Season Arrives
Thursday marked the official opening of candidate registration for elected offices in Montana, and more than 100 aspiring and current politicians braved the sub-zero temperatures outside the Capitol building to file paperwork with the Montana Secretary of State, per the office.
MTFP is maintaining a running list of candidates for most statewide and federal offices. We plan to update the list periodically. If you’re a candidate (or a campaign staffer working for a candidate) who filed Thursday, don’t hesitate to reach out to MTFP political reporter Arren Kimbel-Sannit at [email protected].
On Background
Gianfortes buy $4 million Helena mansion, say they will donate the historic home to the state when the governor’s term ends: MTFP’s full story on Gov. Greg Gianforte’s purchase of the Samuel T. Hauer House includes some entertaining quotes from some of the governor’s new neighbors.
Governor’s mansion renovations indefinitely on hold: Victoria Eavis of Lee newspapers’ Montana State News Bureau is the go-to source for news about the current executive residence. Her story on the pausing of renovations to the home has all the background you need.
Commerce Department director resigns after probe into travel expenses: As MTFP was first to report, former Commerce Director Scott Osterman resigned after an internal probe alleged he misspent more than $26,000 in state funds.