SOUTHERN ILLINOIS - Put it in the file marked "maybe."

Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, said earlier this week he is weighing his options for a potential run at Illinois' lieutenant governor's seat in 2006.

The idea falls far from a promise or even definite interest at this point, the 10-year state legislator said.

"It's really just the case where someone asked me about it, and I said I'm not closing that door," Bost said.

Rumor surrounding Bost's potential climb came after fellow legislator and friend, Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, R-Elgin, announced his intention to run for governor in 2006.

Bost, a state representative since 1994, and Rauschenberger, a state senator since 1993, share the same house in Springfield when the general assembly is in session.

"He owns the house I rent a room in," Bost said about Rauschenberger.

Bost said if there is anyone he would enjoy serving with in the state's administration it would be Rauschenberger.

Rauschenberger echoed accolades for Bost Friday but said running for lieutenant governor is something he'll have to decide on his own.

"Mike's got a very good sense of statewide issues, as well as issues around central and Southern Illinois," Rauschenberger said.

Bost would have to run a primary election campaign as an independent, under Illinois state law for the lieutenant governor post, he added.

As for Rauschenberger's bid for governor, he said he was serious about it. He's even started pulling a financial team together for the fund-raising needs any Republican candidate is going to need should Gov. Rod Blagojevich go for re-election.

"Anybody who runs is going to have to run against a prodigious fund-raiser," Rauschenberger said. "He may not always be an attentive governor, but he knows how to fund-raise."

Republican party members say Bost and Rauschenberger could compliment each other well on the ticket for the 2006 general election.

Jim Nalepa, one of the Republican candidates in contention for the party chairperson seat being vacated by Judy Baar Topinka, said he knows Rauschenberger but doesn't know Bost. However, the idea behind the pairing might work better, he said, than the frosty undertones between Blagojevich and current Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn.

"If Rauschenberger is the nominee, and he wants a lieutenant governor he is familiar with and covers a different geographic area than him, I would applaud that," Nalepa said.

But Bost said he could have a number of options open to him in the next couple of years. He doesn't deny he has spent a considerable amount of time in the House and might be ready for some place new.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com 618-529-5454 x15090