– From 1997 to 2004, Republican political strategist John Hancock was the executive director of the Missouri Republican Party. A decade after leaving that full-time role, Hancock is considering a return to the organization.

This time, he wants to be chairman.

Early last month, Republicans supporting Hancock’s candidacy began informally polling members of the Missouri Republican State Committee about the possibility of a run and even challenging the incumbent chairman, Ed Martin. Their findings were apparently positive, as Hancock has quietly began personally working members of the state committee.

Still, Hancock on Monday declined to comment on this story or whether he is running. Martin has not yet indicated whether or not he will seek reelection when his seat opens up early next year. In an email Monday, he simply said he is “planning on it.”

“First, finishing up the election and then meeting with grassroots, elected [official]s and other folks to talk about the future and how we can build on our momentum,” he said.

Despite his unwillingness to weigh in publicly, committee members have said Hancock has privately begun to lay out a case to them claiming both fundraising and organizational strengths.

Since Martin was elected in the spring of 2013, the state committee’s fundraising success has diminished from where it was in the past. In conversations with committee members, Hancock has highlighted his work from 2004 to 2012 where he helped lead the party’s fundraising effort as an outside consultant.

To committee members, Hancock has also touted his organizational efforts, including recent work with a PAC – founded by Aaron Willard, the former campaign manager for Ann Wagner who now leads Rex Sinquefield’s Grow Missouri, and whose board is chaired by former Roy Blunt Chief of Staff Gregg Hartley, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist – that aims to help candidates in Missouri with “basic Republican political infrastructure.”

Soon after Hancock left the Missouri GOP in 2004, he launched his own political consulting and research firm in St. Louis. Most recently, he assisted Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Brunner in 2012. Brunner lost, and Hancock soon moved to Ohio, where he worked joined The Strategy Group for Media, the conservative consulting firm utilized by U.S. Rep. Todd Akin’s failed 2012 campaign against Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Hancock has begun to spend less time in Ohio and more time in St. Louis, appearing frequently on KMOX Radio and KTVI television. At his day job, Hancock’s firm has been leading the research effort for Catherine Hanaway, the only Republican who has declared a candidacy for Missouri governor.

If Hancock is ultimately successful, it could be a political reunion, of sorts, for he and Roy Temple, chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party. For two years while Hancock was the executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, Temple was in the same position for the Democrats.

Hancock may not be the only Republican considering a run for the position.

Sara Walsh, a committee member from mid-Missouri, said Monday, “John Hancock’s name is among several I have heard floating around.”