Sviggum Re-Elected House Speaker, Olson Joins Abrams and Boudreau As Speaker Pro Tempore
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• and the Rules and Legislative Administration committees. I Boudreau, a realtor, is serving her fifth term. Sviggum re-elected House speaker, Olson joins Abrams and She chairs the House Health and Human Ser vices Policy Committee and is also a member Boudreau as speaker pro tempore of the Health and Human Services Finance, Governmental Operations or the third straight biennium, Rep. Steve Sviggum, a farmer, and Veterans Mfairs Policy, Sviggum (R-Kenyon) will preside over the educator, and coach, was and Rules and Legislative Minnesota House ofRepresentatives. first elected to the House F Administration commit Sviggum was elected Speaker of the House in 1978. He is a member of tees. when members con the Ways and Means and Appointed speaker pro vened for the 83 rd session Rules and Legislative Ad tempore for the first time, Jan. 7, defeating House ministration committees. Rep. Ron Abrams Olson, a carpenter and Rep. Mark Olson Minority Leader Matt Prior to being elected homebuilder, is serving his sixth term. He's Entenza (DFL-St. Paul) speaker, Sviggum was the House Minority vice chair ofthe House Education Policy Com 81 to 51. Leader for three biennial sessions mittee and serves on the Capital Investment, Considered by Reps. Ron Abrams (R-Minnetonka), Lynda Environment and Natural Resources Policy, Rep. Steve Sviggum some to be the second Boudreau (R-Faribault), andMarkOlson (R-Big and Transportation Policy committees. He also most-powerfulposition instate governmentbe Lake) have each been appointed spealcer pro tem co-chaired a task force examining joint pro hind the governor, the speaker appoints House pore to preside over the House in the spealcer's cedures governing both the House and Senate committee chairs, vice chairs, and names mem absence. with new Senate Majority Leader John bers ofboth parties to committees. The speaker Abrams and Boudreau have served as Hottinger (DFL-Mankato) during the also refers proposedlegislation to standing com speakers pro tempore since 1999. 2001-2002 session. mittees and appoints conference committee Now in his eighth (T. LONERGAN) members, and designates a person to fulfill the term, Abrams is duties ofthe legislative office until members elect chair of the House Editor's Note: Watch for profiles of new House a successor. Taxes Committee. majority and minority leadership in the upcoming is In the chamber, the spealcer controls floor The attorney is also sues ofSession Weekly. debates, preserves order and decorum and can a member ofthe Lo order the House lobby or galleries cleared due cal Government and Rep. Lynda Boudreau to improper conduct or other disturbances. MetropolitanAffairs When a small plane went down near Eveleth situation, but it's not the first time a governor's Ken Rudin, National Public Radio's political on Oct. 25, 2002 killing u.s. Sen. Paul Wellstone appointment has stirred a little controversy. editor, wrote in a 1999 Washington Post column and seven others, it set off a chain reaction that After six years of leading the state, DFL Gov. thatAndersonwasthe ninth governorsince 1933 did not stop until U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman was Wendell Andersonwas namedtothe U.S. Senate to resign and then be appointed to the u.s. sworn into office Jan. 7. in late 1976 to replace Walter Mondale, who Senate, and that "only one was able to win a During that time then Gov. Jesse Ventura was elected vice president underJimmy Carter. subsequent election on his own." He reasoned named Dean Barkley, director of Minnesota Anderson technically resigned as governor, that in Anderson's case "voters resented his self Planning, as the interim replacementfor the late thereby promoting Lt. Gov. Rudy Perpich to appointment to the Senate and dumped him at senator. Minnesota's top post. the first opportunity." Legally, it is up to the governor to determine "Wendell made a gallant display ofsearching Conversely, Anderson reportedly thought his whether he or she will appoint a replacement border to border for the most qualified and popularitywould bestrongerthan the antipathy when a member ofCongress dies while in office gifted Democrat to succeed Mondale. He then voters had with his appointment. or is otherwise unable to complete his or her concluded that it was Wendell Anderson," In their 1999 book, Minnesota Politics and term. Though it is the governor's responsibility, columnist Jim Klobuchar wrote in the Feb. 1, Government, authors Daniel Elezar, Virginia Gray, there is no requirement that the governor make 1990 Minneapolis Star Tribune. "To no one's and Wy Spano wrote that "Anderson's self an interim appointment. When the late shock, Rudy's first conscious act as governor appointment to the U.S. Senate and his Congressman Bruce Vento died a few weeks was to put Wendell Anderson in the Senate." subsequent rejection by Minnesota voters before the end of his term in 2000, Ventura left Anderson served two years in Washington represents one of the tragic miscalculations in the seat unfilled until a new memberofCongress D.C., losing his 1978 re-election bid to Rudy Minnesota political history." was elected that November. Boschwitz. Six years later he failed to garner his (M. Cook) Wellstone's death occurred so closely to a party's endorsement for the seat. general election which complicated the Session Weekly.