Michael J. Howlett Sr. (August 30, 1914 – May 4, 1992) was an American politician who served as the 24th

Illinois Auditor of Public Accounts Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

and 33rd

Illinois Secretary of State The Secretary of State of Illinois is one of the six elected executive state offices of the government of Illinois, and one of the 47 secretaries of states in the United States. The Illinois Secretary of State keeps the state records, laws, libr ...

. He was the Democratic nominee for

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

in the 1976 Illinois gubernatorial election.

Early life

Howlett was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, a son of

Irish immigrants The Irish diaspora ( ga, Diaspóra na nGael) refers to ethnic Irish people and their descendants who live outside the island of Ireland. The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the Early Middle Ages,Flechner and Meeder, The ...

. Howlett was All-American

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

player, participating on ten championship teams of the Illinois Athletic Club.1973-1974 Illinois Blue Book p22
/ref> He graduated from St. Mel High School and briefly attended

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

, leaving in 1934 to become a state bank examiner.

Career

Early career

In the 1930s, Howlett established an independent

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

business. He later served as Chicago-area director of the

National Youth Administration The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a New Deal agency sponsored by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency. It focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 25. It operated from June 26, 1935 to ...

, worked as an executive for the

Chicago Park District The Chicago Park District is one of the oldest and the largest park districts in the United States. As of 2016, there are over 600 parks included in the Chicago Park District as well as 27 beaches, several boat harbors, two botanic conservatories ...

, and was appointed regional director of the

Economic Stabilization Agency The Economic Stabilization Agency (ESA) was an agency of the United States Government that existed from 1950 to 1953. The creation of the ESA was authorized by the Defense Production Act (, 64 Stat. 798), which was signed into law by President ...

. He later worked as a steel company executive. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Illinois Auditor

In 1956, Howlett ran for Illinois State Auditor and is credited with exposing incumbent Auditor

Orville Hodge Orville Enoch Hodge (October 1, 1904 – December 29, 1986) was the Auditor of Public Accounts (predecessor to the Office of Comptroller) of the state of Illinois from 1952 to 1956. During his term in office, he embezzled $6.15 million of st ...

as having embezzled $6.15 million in state funds. While Hodge was removed from office and eventually sent to prison, Howlett lost the general election to Elbert Sidney Smith as part of a national

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

. However, in the next general election, in 1960, Howlett ''was'' elected Auditor of Public Accounts (the Auditor's Office was the predecessor to the current office of

Comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

), and was re-elected twice. During Howlett's first term as Auditor, he cut the budget of the office by 20%, and returned over $600,000 of the funds stolen by Hodge to the state treasury. In 1972, Howlett was elected

, becoming the first Democratic state officer to win four consecutive statewide elections.

1976 Illinois Gubernatorial Campaign

Howlett was prepared to run for re-election in 1976, but was encouraged by Cook County Democrats to challenge

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an official, office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seek ...

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Dan Walker for the Democratic nomination in 1976. Howlett defeated Walker in the March primary, and stood as the Democratic nominee for governor of Illinois in the general election, whereupon he was defeated by

nominee

James R. Thompson James Robert Thompson Jr. (May 8, 1936 – August 14, 2020), also known as Big Jim Thompson, was an American attorney and politician who served as the 37th governor of Illinois from 1977 to 1991. A moderate Republican who sometimes took more ...

. Throughout the campaign, Howlett was dogged by conflict of interest charges, first raised by Walker, over payments Howlett received as an executive at Sun Steel Company. A report issued by former Illinois Supreme Court Justice Marvin Burt at the behest of Republican state Attorney General William J. Scott was highly critical of Howlett. However, a Cook County judge ruled no conflict of interest had arisen, and cleared Howlett. Thompson, who successfully prosecuted former Illinois governor

Otto Kerner Jr. Otto Kerner Jr. (August 15, 1908 – May 9, 1976) was an American jurist and politician who served as the 33rd governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968 and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ...

, continued to hammer the issue during the general election campaign, and attacked Howlett as corrupt, and Attorney General Scott vowed to appeal the judge's ruling. Ironically, it was Scott who later was forced to resign after a felony conviction."Scott's Justice," ''Illinois Issues'', December 1980
/ref> Early polls of the contest had Howlett in the lead, although Thompson had nearly closed the gap by the time of the primary. His lead expanded during the campaign, and Howlett ended up losing by 30 percentage points (nearly 1.4 million votes), the widest margin of defeat for any Democratic Nominee for Governor of Illinois in history. Thompson was the first candidate for Governor to receive over 3 million votes, and his tally of 3,000,395 remains the highest number of votes ever cast for a candidate in an election for Governor of Illinois.

Retirement

After his loss in the 1976 governor's race, Howlett opened a private consulting business. Howlett would later see his son run for statewide office through bizarre circumstances. In the 1986 Democratic primary for

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

, former U.S. Senator Adlai Stevenson III and the Democratic Party selected State senator

George E. Sangmeister George Edward Sangmeister (February 16, 1931 – October 7, 2007) was an American politician and United States Representative from Illinois. He originally represented Illinois' 4th congressional district, before it was renumbered as the 11th ...

as the party-preferred candidate, however he narrowly lost the primary to Mark Fairchild (a

Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy ...

activist). After LaRouche followers had won the Democratic nominations for both Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State, Stevenson refused to run as the Democratic standard-bearer, and formed the Solidarity Party. When Sangmeister was unwilling to run with Stevenson in the fall, Howlett's son Michael J. Howlett Jr., then a Cook County judge,AROUND THE NATION; Stevenson Announces Illinois Running Mate
May 6, 1986, The New York Times was nominated by the Solidarity Party. Stevenson-Howlett went down to defeat in the fall, with only 40% of the vote. Another son, Edward G. Howlett, was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Chicago City Clerk in 1995.

Death and legacy

Howlett died in Chicago's Mercy Hospital of chronic

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

. He had suffered a stroke three months earlier and remained hospitalized from then until his death. The building housing the offices of the Illinois Secretary of State in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

, formerly known as the Centennial Building, is named after Howlett.

Election history

!bgcolor=#CCCCCC , Year !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , Office !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , Election ! !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , Subject !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , Party !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , Votes !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , % ! !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , Opponent !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , Party !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , Votes !bgcolor=#CCCCCC , % , - , 1976 ,

, Primary , , , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Michael Howlett , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Democratic , bgcolor=#DDEEFF align = "right", 811,721 , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 53.82 , , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Dan Walker (Inc.) , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Democratic , bgcolor=#DDEEFF align = "right", 696,380 , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 46.18 , - , 1972 ,

, General , , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Michael Howlett , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Democratic , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 2,360,327 , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 51.69 , , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , Edmund J. Kucharski , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 ,

, bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 2,187,544 , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 47.91 , - , 1968 ,

, General , , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Michael Howlett (Inc.) , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Democratic , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 2,215,401 , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 50.99 , , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , William C. Harris , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 ,

, bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 2,106,676 , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 48.49 , - , 1964 ,

, General , , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Michael Howlett (Inc.) , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Democratic , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 2,513,831 , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 55.47 , , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , John Kirby , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 ,

, bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 2,017,951 , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 44.53 , - , 1960 ,

, General , , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Michael Howlett , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Democratic , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 2,296,220 , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 50.44 , , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , Elbert S. Smith (Inc.) , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 ,

, bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 2,246,833 , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 49.35 , - , 1956 ,

, General , , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Michael Howlett , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Democratic , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 1,992,707 , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 47.23 , , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , Elbert S. Smith , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 ,

, bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 2,217,229 , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 52.55 , - , 1950 ,

Illinois Treasurer The Treasurer of Illinois is an elected official of the U.S. state of Illinois. The office was created by the Constitution of Illinois. Current Occupant The current Treasurer of Illinois is Democrat Mike Frerichs. He was first elected to head t ...

, General , , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Michael Howlett , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , Democratic , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 1,568,763 , bgcolor=#DDEEFF , 44.32 , , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , William G. Stratton , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 ,

, bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 1,959,734 , bgcolor=#FFE8E8 , 55.36 , -

References

Sources

*''Chicago Tribune'' Historical Archive online (May 5, 1992), retrieved April 28, 2007.
Illinois Comptroller web site - History of the Office - Howlett1975-1976 Illinois Blue Book p40
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howlett, Michael J. 1914 births 1992 deaths DePaul University alumni Deaths from kidney failure Politicians from Chicago Military personnel from Chicago American people of Irish descent Secretaries of State of Illinois Auditors of Public Accounts of Illinois Illinois Democrats 20th-century American politicians