The seesaw battle for a seat in the newly formed Montana House District 57, which includes parts of rural Park County and Bozeman, is headed for a recount.
Democrat newcomer Scott Rosenzweig currently leads Republican Rep. Marty Malone by 20 votes, 3,803 to 3,783. The margin lies just outside the threshold for a mandatory recount, but Malone raised more than $5,000 to pay for one. Park and Gallatin counties will each receive about $2,500.
"I was a county extension agent for 30 years and county commissioner for eight years and legislator for two terms," Malone said. "So basically, going to go forward with the recount and have to raise some cash to do so," Malone said.
Malone was the incumbent for Montana House District 59, which covered mostly rural areas in Sweet Grass and Park counties, before redistricting was completed before this most recent election. A new district, District 57, now encompasses unincorporated Park County as well as portions of Bozeman.
"I'm disappointed in the way they redistrict in my world, because we get rural votes in Park County, and urban votes in Gallatin County. So, it's basically two worlds," said Malone.
"The previous districts were not competitive. Gallatin was not competitive. I mean, it was very Democrat and Park was very Republican and the new district is very balanced," said Rosenzweig.
A Bozeman resident for 20 years, it was Rosenzweig's first time running for office.
"This is really happening exactly like we thought it was, just a whole month later now," Rosenzweig said. "The people of Park County also stepped up to vote 77 percent where Gallatin only showed up at 73 percent, which also made it a little closer in the end."
Park County's recount will take place Wednesday with Gallatin's to come in early December. Rosenzweig said it's not something he's losing sleep over, as he prepares to move forward with serving in the Legislature.
"I'm not nervous at all. I feel very comfortable with the numbers and that's why the state doesn't pay for this," said Rosenzweig. "I'm already in the process of learning how to be a new legislator, which means honing in on the bill topics that I'd like to submit."
"I owe it to my supporters who have stood behind me all the time," Malone said. "Let's go through and see if we can come up with 11 more votes of what we need."
