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Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced Tuesday that he had appointed Sviggum to the post, triggering a special election to fill the District 28B seat, which covers northwestern Winona County.
Pawlenty had not set a date for that election Tuesday, and Sviggum could not be reached for comment.
A longtime political ally of Pawlenty, Sviggum is scheduled to step into his new role July 17.
Sviggum was first elected in 1978 and is serving his 15th consecutive term. He presided over the chamber from 1998 to 2006, when Democrats reclaimed majority status.
Sviggum’s new job will put him in charge of Minnesota’s workers’ compensation system, workplace safety entities, labor laws and about 500 employees. It will come with a big pay raise: Sviggum made $31,140 plus daily expenses as a legislator. Commissioners make about $108,400.
The department’s commissioner, Scott Brener, is leaving next month to take an insurance company job.
Jeffrey Flaten of Kenyon, who ran as a Democrat against Sviggum in 2006, had already announced plans to challenge him again for the seat. Flaten said Tuesday that he will expedite those plans in time for a special election. “I’m in it for the long haul,” he said.
Flaten, an officer at Faribault Correctional Facility, lost with 39 percent of the vote in 2006 but came closer to beating Sviggum than any challenger in the past. Flaten said Republicans may wish to hold a special election as quickly as possible.
“There might be some strategy on the governor’s part to have it sooner than later,” Flaten said.
District 28B covers an L-shaped area stretching from Kenyon in the west to Kellogg on the east, then south to St. Charles and Lewiston on its southern edge.
