Another of the “A” list Republican gubernatorial candidates is stepping to the sideline – for now at least.

Steve Sviggum, the former speaker of the House and the state’s current Labor and Industry commissioner, is stopping his campaign because of a letter he received this week from the feds, saying that the rules of the Hatch Act prohibit him from being both a candidate and a government official who oversees federal policies.

“I’m suspending my campaign, I’m not ending it,” Sviguum told Mary Lahammer of “Almanac.”

He made it clear that he wants to keep drawing a paycheck from the state but will get back in the race if no current Republican candidate for governor catches on.

Sviguum isn’t the only relatively high-profile Republican on the sideline but still looking closely at getting back in the fray. Citing health issues, Rep. Laura Brod of New Prague, suspended her exploration of a run earlier this summer. But the buzz among Republicans is that Brod will get back into the race.

How far out of the race is Sviguum?

When he got the letter from the solicitor general saying that he couldn’t be a candidate and a commissioner, it “left a hole in my stomach the size of Lake Mille Lacs,” he told Lahammer.