GOP Businessman Dick Green Close to Announcing Bid for IL-10

The next (potential) candidate we take a look at today in our continuing series on how the race to succeed Congressman Mark Kirk is shaping up, is Winnetka businessman Dick Green. Green has been out working the 10th District since even before Mark Kirk officially announced his intention to seek the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Blagojevich-appointee Roland Burris, but I managed to catch up with Green at last night's meeting of the Libertyville Township Republicans (a very important township for anyone competing in the 10th District).

Green has a strong entrepreneurial background, having moved from Evanston, where he was born, out to California after graduating from Harvard. He immediately joined a very small bond market consulting firm and was named President of the firm only three years later. Green grew his business rapidly, and it was named an Inc 500 company (top growth rates for small business) three years in a row. The company was sold to S&P/McGraw-Hill in 1989 and he remained as President through mid-1992. Green then started his own business, Briefing.com, in 1993 and moved the business to Illinois in 2000. In 2005, Smart Money Magazine named Dick Green a top market mover on its annual Power 30 list. He has grown his business to 60 employees, and is headquartered in downtown Chicago.

Green's political experience is mostly limited to his stint in California, but he notes that as a local party chairman, he's "written many checks, dialed for dollars, and stuffed many envelopes." He's been married 18 years, has one 15-year old son, and three grown step-children.

Green says his primary focus is jobs, jobs, jobs. He wants to "take business sense to Washington and be a passionate advocate for private enterprise, particularly small business." He wants to halt the excessive government spending, reduce the debt and end corruption.

Green says he will be a "partial self-funder," which sounds a little vague, but is understandable considering that even a successful businessman like Green should be leery of personally committing the millions of dollars up front that this campaign will likely cost. Besides, we on the North Shore have not traditionally reacted too well to self-funders (even if they try to bribe us with ice cream).

Green expects to make a formal announcement "soon," likely after the fanfare over the Hamos announcement today dies down a little. So far, he's probably been mentioned the most in news articles leading up to this point, including Politico, Talking Points Memo (TPM), Roll Call (subscription required), as well as some local coverage.