CARLINVILLE — With the congressional candidate filing period to begin Friday in Illinois, another potential challenger to U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, has said no.

Sen. Sam McCann, R-Carlinville, said Tuesday he would not oppose Johnson in the newly created 13th Congressional District that runs from Champaign-Urbana south to the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis.

He said he was contacted by a group last week that said their polling indicated he had the best chance of any other area Republican to unseat Johnson.

"There was no proactivity on my part, in any way, shape or form. The phone calls that came to me late last week came totally out of the blue," said McCann, who was elected to the state Senate last year. "I had not sat back and contemplated it, up to that time, at all. These gentleman called me and told me about the polling.

"Other folks around the district called me and asked me to consider it. Of course I considered it for a brief moment because I had some constituents and some folks who weren't constituents ask me to consider it. My response to them was that I would have to talk to my wife and my wife and I would have to pray about it and get back to them. That's what we have done."

In a statement he posted on Facebook, McCann said he decided to run for re-election to the state Senate.

"While I am overwhelmed and flattered at having so many people contact me in the last day or so, I have to tell you that I believe my work, our work, is not done in the Illinois Statehouse," he said. "We need to continue to clean up this mess right here at home before we set our sights on anything else. I still feel the call to finish the mission we have started."

McCann said he did not know Johnson well, but expected to support the congressman for re-election in the new district.

"He and I have met a couple of times but I do not know him well. But I do know him," McCann said. "I'm certain that if I were to look at every key vote he has taken since he has been there, I'm sure that I could find a few that I disagree with. But as far as having a problem, quote unquote, with Congressman Johnson, no, I do not. I have no reason to believe I won't be supporting him. I am going to support the winner of that Republican primary, and I have no reason to believe it won't be him."

For now, Johnson has no announced opponent.

The poll presented to McCann was of 300 likely Republican primary voters in the 13th District, taken Dec. 4-6, by WPA Opinion Research, a Republican polling firm based in Washington, D.C. It showed that 51 percent of respondents had either a very favorable or somewhat favorable opinion of Johnson. Only 10 percent were very unfavorable or somewhat unfavorable toward Johnson.

But of voters who identified themselves as "very conservative," Johnson received 27 percent of their votes to 43 percent for "other candidates." According to the pollsters, 55 percent of Republican primary voters identify themselves as "very conservative."