Former Rep. Ted Suss files to challenge Swedzinski

Former DFL legislator Ted Suss has filed to run for a southwestern Minnesota House seat in 2012.

Back in August, Suss, a former House member who served in the 1970s, told PIM he was was weighing a run for the House or Senate next fall. Last Friday, Suss officially filed his bid with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board in House District 21A, a seat that’s currently held by freshman Republican Rep. Chris Swedzinski.

Suss served two terms in the House from 1975 to 1978 representing Scott and Carver counties south of the Twin Cities. Since leaving the Legislature, Suss was executive director of the State Board of Education and worked for the Minnesota State Academies for the Deaf and Blind Schools in Faribault.

He’s been a school superintendent for the last 12 years, but plans to retire as superintendent of the Wabasso Public Schools at the end of the upcoming school year. Suss is also the Redwood County DFL chairman.

He faces an uphill battle in the strong GOP district. Swedzinski, a farmer from Ghent, beat DFL challenger Ramona Larson by nearly 30 percentage points last fall. He replaced retiring Rep. Marty Seifert, who served as the House Republican Minority Leader.