ELKHART — Former Mayor Dave Miller will announce next week that he’s running against state Rep. Craig Fry, D-Mishawaka, for Fry’s 5th District seat, said Chris Riley, St. Joseph County’s Republican Party chairman.

Miller, a Republican who served as Elkhart’s mayor from 2000 to 2007, has yet to file paperwork for the election, but he is expected to be nominated to run at a June 29 caucus.

"I had a number of conversations with him, and I know some close friends had conversations with him," said Riley, the county GOP chairman. "I think the party, in terms of statewide Republican leaders, have been urging him for years to consider running for this position."

Fry has represented the 5th District, which includes Mishawaka and a small strip of Elkhart County, since 1988.

The majority of Fry’s district is in St. Joseph County, where he said Miller has low name recognition.

"The district is 80 percent in St. Joseph County and the part of Elkhart County that I have is about 60 percent Democratic, on average," Fry said.

Not that that’s a free pass, he said.

"If somebody's name's on the ballot, they're always competitive," Fry said. "You have to assume they're competitive."