Gov. Dayton to Undergo Spinal Surgery Gov. Mark Dayton will undergo spinal surgery next week at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Dayton's office announced Friday that the operation is being done to relieve a constriction in the governor's lower back, known as stenosis, and to fuse a vertebrae in the same area that is shifting out of alignment. The procedure will take place on Thursday, Dec. 27. Dayton, who is 65, expects to be released from the hospital on Dec. 31. He'll return to the Governor's Residence in St. Paul after that, and plans to work from there for a few weeks. His office says public events scheduled for the first two weeks of January are being rescheduled.