Former South Dakota Lieutenant Governor Steve Kirby says he will decide within the next week whether to try to challenge Democratic Senator Tim Johnson this November.

Kirby says he's "working feverishly" to reach a decision. South Dakota Republicans have been searching for candidates to challenge Johnson this year. Kirby, a wealthy Sioux Falls businessman potentially could fund a Senate race. He says he is talking to people in South Dakota and in Washington, including some members of Congress and the White House, who are trying to recruit him.

Three Republicans -- state Representative Joel Dykstra, retired real estate agent Bert Tollefson and self-employed businessman Sam Kephart -- already have said they want the GOP nod.

Kirby ran for governor in 2002, coming in third in the Republican primary after he and then-Attorney General Mark Barnett attacked each other in a nasty, expensive campaign.