Tony Gill, a labor attorney and prominent O'ahu Democrat, is seriously considering a run for governor next year.

Several Democratic activists announced last week that they have independently formed a committee to build support for a Gill campaign. Gill said he is weighing the possibility but has set no timetable for a decision.

"I am deeply honored by the fact that a number of very credible people think that I would be a strong candidate," Gill said Friday. "I am a lifelong party member. I believe in the Democratic Party. I believe it has unfinished business. And I believe that it's time that we finished that business."

The party, which has dominated Hawai'i politics for five decades, has been engaged in a lengthy and increasingly frustrating search for a candidate to challenge Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.

Several names have been floated as possible contenders, but the committee for Gill is the first formal step taken in public on behalf of a potential candidate. Some Democrats familiar with the search said Gill and Big Island Mayor Harry Kim have shown the most interest in running against Lingle.

Kim's name has been mentioned for months, but some factions within the party appear to be growing anxious that the mayor has not made a decision.

In an interview earlier this year, when talk of a possible campaign first surfaced, Kim said he made it clear to the party he would decide at his own time.

"The worst is I don't know when I'll know what to do," Kim said. "It's just something I'll have to feel what is right."

The committee for Gill will try to increase name recognition for the attorney and has established a Web site with a list of supporters who want him to run. Gill's father, Tom, was a leading figure in the party's emergence in the 1950s and is a former Hawai'i congressman and lieutenant governor who made two unsuccessful runs for governor in the 1970s.

Gill is an attorney with the firm Gill & Zukeran with clients that include the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly.

"Our committee has been meeting for several months, and we are certain that Tony Gill would indeed run for the governor's office were he to see a strong demonstration of support coming from grass-roots Democrats," the committee's co-chairmen, Herbert Ikazaki and Marion Heen Shim, said in a statement.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.