BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Republican Gov. John Hoeven, who has avoided questions about whether he will challenge Democrat Byron Dorgan for his U.S. Senate seat, says he is likely to decide by early September whether he will make the race.

North Dakota's Republican state chairman, Gary Emineth, said he hoped to recruit Republicans to challenge Dorgan and North Dakota's Democratic congressman, Earl Pomeroy, by Labor Day, Sept. 7. Candidates against both men will need a long head start on campaigning and fundraising to improve their chances of winning, Emineth said.

Hoeven, in an interview, said Emineth's goal is reasonable and said his own decision will be made at about that time. "I don't have any specific time line, but that's probably a reasonable range," the governor said.

"Obviously, whoever is going to run has to do all of the things that go into running a strong campaign, and that takes time," Hoeven said. "Putting together a good, strong organization, making sure you do your fundraising, building a team, and getting to work getting your message out."

Emineth wants Hoeven to run against Dorgan, and he has promised to enlist national Republican leaders in the lobbying effort.

"We're putting on a full-court press ... to reach out to the governor and talk about the type of assistance that would be there," Emineth said. "It could be the race to watch in the country."

Both Hoeven and Dorgan have declined to talk about a potential race between them — during a recent joint appearance in Bismarck earlier this month, the two men did not respond to a question about it — but Dorgan is preparing for the possibility of a Hoeven Senate campaign. In an e-mail to supporters last week, Dorgan said he expected "a difficult and challenging" bid for his fourth Senate term.

"A high-profile opponent could make my Senate rates competitive almost overnight," Dorgan's e-mail said.

Dorgan, who served in the U.S. House for 12 years before he was elected to the Senate in 1992, had $2.7 million in his campaign fund on March 31, the closing date of his most recent Federal Election Commission disclosure report. He got 68 percent of the vote in winning his third term in 2004, defeating Mike Liffrig, a Mandan attorney and jury consultant who is now the Oliver County state's attorney.

Hoeven won his third term last year with 74 percent of the vote, beating Fargo Democratic state Sen. Tim Mathern. Hoeven spent about $1.8 million on his campaign, state disclosure filings indicate. At year's end, Hoeven's campaign treasury had about $70,000.

Emineth said a Dorgan-Hoeven matchup would mean an unprecedented fundraising effort on both sides. He predicted it would cost between $15 million and $20 million.

"The governor knows how to raise money to run great campaigns. He's proven that, obviously," Emineth said. "But this type of campaign would be much bigger."

North Dakota Republicans have had difficulty in recruiting candidates to oppose Dorgan or his Democratic Senate colleague, Kent Conrad. Liffrig did not begin his 2004 campaign against Dorgan until shortly before the state Republican convention in early April. Conrad's opponent in 2006, Barnes County farmer Dwight Grotberg, followed a similar pattern. Neither man had run a statewide campaign before.

"A lot of times, we've put candidates together at the last minute that maybe haven't had the resources financially or the name ID to do it," Emineth said. "My No. 1 goal is to have strong candidates for both of those seats in 2010, and run a very competitive and serious campaign."