State Rep. Andy Tobin, a Prescott Republican, has formed an exploratory committee and is close to making an official campaign announcement in the race to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi in Congressional District 1, PolitickerAZ.com has learned.

“We’ve always considered the race a wide-open field,” Tobin said Friday evening.

The sole Republican to officially enter the race is anti-tax activist and Arizona Mining Association President Sydney Hay. On the Democratic side, State Rep. Anne Kirkpatrick, attorney Howard Shanker, and former television anchor Mary Kim Titla have jumped into the race.

Tobin, 49, is confident that he would be a force to be reckoned with in the race. He points out that his Prescott district is large, that he has lived in the area for 13 years, and that he has a record of public service that dates to the late 1980s, when he was president of the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce.

Tobin is planning a campaign that is focused on the federal budgetary crisis – an issue, he says, that is angering Arizonans. “Republicans lost perspective,” he says. “We are the ones who are supposed to have our house in order.”

An exploratory phase, Tobin says, is “just beginning.” He is in the process of having what he says are “frank, open discussions with people I respect” about the race.

One person close to Tobin says that Larry Weitzner has been fingered to serve as a key political hand. Weitzner is from the New Jersey-based Jamestown Associates, a Republican firm that has helped to run campaigns for Renzi and Arizona Secretary of Education Tom Horne.

The still-developing campaign believes that it will cost anywhere from $2-3 million to run for the seat. “It’s expensive to run a race in this district,” says one person. But Tobin, who has worked in banking and owns an employee benefits company, says that his experience in business will prove helpful in fundraising. “I have a strong business record that will be difficult for my opponents to debate,” he says.

A formal campaign announcement is expected before March – perhaps as soon as mid-February.

Tobin said that Hay, the other Republican in the race, is “a nice person” who he had met on several occasions. He did not talk specifically about the Democrats in the race, but added: “the Democrats I’ve seen haven’t been talking about significant changes that would be helpful” on issues important to voters in the district.

Tobin doesn’t make a mystery of how he will present himself in the campaign. He talks about himself as someone who has a unique background that and who has demonstrated an ability to attack problems and get things done.

“I think I’ve got a new story,” he says.