(Photo courtesy of Washington State Senate)

Nine years after he left the Senate in 2003, Dino Rossi is back in the “upper chamber” of the Legislature. But it will be only for a few months. Rossi, who ran twice for governor and once for U.S. Senate after leaving the state Senate, was appointed Monday afternoon by the Metropolitan King County Council to fill the unexpired term of Cheryl Pflug, who resigned her 5th Legislative District Senate seat to take an appointment to the Washington Growth Management Hearings Board. The remainder of the term will end in January.

Rossi was sworn in Tuesday afternoon on the Senate floor by Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson.

The announcement of Rossi’s Senate appointment brought a negative response from Pflug, who was a 5th District state representative when Rossi was the district’s senator.