ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon said Monday she will consider a run for Duluth mayor as she leaves her post in state politics.

She described the mayoral position as "the only political job I ever aspired to" because of her deep affinity for a place she represented for 12 years on the City Council and then nine more in the state Senate. She served four years as Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton's lieutenant, but didn't run with him for re-election.

Prettner Solon said she won't make a decision on the race until spring. The filing period runs from mid-May until early June.

She said she's in no rush to jump into another campaign. She plans to spend a couple of months in Arizona with family after her term ends the first week in January — reading books and taking walks.

"I have said I will give it consideration, but I'm going to take a break first," she said. "I'm going to take a break and see how it works for me."

She said she had mulled mayoral campaigns in other years only to pull back because the timing wasn't right.

Incumbent Mayor Don Ness announced this fall he won't seek a third term in 2015. Duluth City Councilman Howie Hanson announced he'd run for mayor before Ness made his intentions clear, and state Sen. Roger Reinert has also said he's considering a bid.

Prettner Solon came to the Capitol in a 2002 special election to fill the remaining Senate term of her husband Sam, who died following a bout with cancer. He was 70 years old, which also could factor into her thinking on a mayoral bid. Prettner Solon turns 69 early next year.

"My husband died in office," she told reporters after a hearing of a Capitol security task force she chaired. "I have said I will not stay in office so long I die in office."

As for the lieutenant governor position, longtime Dayton adviser Tina Smith won election to the post on Dayton's ticket.