HOUGHTON – As the 1st Congressional District race between candidates Democrat Lon Johnson and Republican Jack Bergman heads down the home stretch, so does the back-and-forth battle over places of primary residences, with each candidate claiming the other is not a primary resident of the district each hopes to win in the November 2016 election.

While the focus of the argument has nothing to do with the issues facing the congressional district, one aspect has been overlooked in the ongoing spat: According to the U.S. Constitution (Article I, section 2, clause 2), it not required that a candidate running for a congressional district live within that district, only be a resident of the state in which the district is located.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, however, aired a television ad recently in which it painted Johnson as a “political carpetbagger” whose residence is actually a penthouse apartment in Detroit, rather than a home he claims in downstate Kalkaska.

The Daily Mining Gazette contacted the Kalkaska County Treasurer’s Office, which revealed that Johnson’s home on East Bass Lake Road, near the village of Kalkaska, is listed as 100 percent homestead with an assessed value of $29,800. According to the state Qualified Voter File, Johnson is also registered to vote at the address he lists as his home.

During a visit to the Gazette, Johnson produced his Michigan drivers license, issued in June 2015, that had his Kalkaska address.

Jen Eyer, a campaign spokeswoman for Johnson, told the Daily Mining Gazette that Johnson’s wife of five years, Julianna Smoot, does lease an apartment in Detroit, for ease of travel, which she does frequently due to her job.

Smoot is a Democratic political fundraiser with a national profile. She is the co-founder and partner of the Smoot Tewes Group, a political and public affairs consulting firm based in Washington D.C.

While Smoot maintains the Detroit apartment, Johnson continues to reside at his and his wife’s home in Blue Lake Township.

In the next story, the Gazette looks at the issues surrounding Bergman’s residency.