Michael Howlett
Howlett in 1971
33rd Secretary of State of Illinois
In office January 8, 1973 – January 10, 1977
Governor	Dan Walker
Preceded by	John W. Lewis Jr.
Succeeded by	Alan J. Dixon
24th Illinois Auditor of Public Accounts
In office January 9, 1961 – January 8, 1973
Governor	Otto Kerner Jr. Samuel Shapiro Richard B. Ogilvie
Preceded by	Elbert S. Smith
Succeeded by	George W. Lindberg asIllinois Comptroller
Personal details
Born	Michael Joseph Howlett (1914-08-30)August 30, 1914 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	May 4, 1992(1992-05-04) (aged 77) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Helen Geary
Children	6
Military service
Branch/service	United States Navy
Battles/wars	World War II

Michael Joseph Howlett Sr. (August 30, 1914 – May 4, 1992) was an American politician who served as the 24thIllinois Auditor of Public Accounts and 33rdIllinois Secretary of State.

Howlett was the Democratic nominee forGovernor of Illinois in the1976 Illinois gubernatorial election, following his victory over incumbentDaniel Walker in the Democratic primary. He lost toRepublicanJim Thompson in the general election.

Howlett was born inChicago, a son ofIrish immigrants. Howlett wasAll-Americanwater polo player, participating on ten championship teams of the Illinois Athletic Club.^[1] He graduated fromSt. Mel High School and briefly attendedDePaul University, leaving in 1934 to become a state bank examiner.

In the 1930s, Howlett established an independentinsurance business. He later served as Chicago-area director of theNational Youth Administration, worked as an executive for theChicago Park District, and was appointed regional director of theEconomic Stabilization Agency. He later worked as a steel company executive. He served in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II.

In 1956, Howlett ran forIllinois State Auditor and is credited with exposing incumbent AuditorOrville Hodge 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 toElbert Sidney Smith as part of a nationalRepublicanlandslide. However, in the next general election, in 1960, Howlettwas elected Auditor of Public Accounts (the Auditor's Office was the predecessor to the current office ofComptroller), 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.^[1]

In 1972, Howlett was electedIllinois Secretary of State, becoming the first Democratic state officer to win four consecutive statewide elections.

Howlett was prepared to run for re-election in 1976, but was encouraged byCook County Democrats to challengeincumbentGovernorDan 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 byRepublican nomineeJames R. Thompson.

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 JusticeMarvin Burt at the behest of Republican state Attorney GeneralWilliam 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 governorOtto Kerner Jr., 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.^[2]

Early polls of the contest had Howlett in the lead, although Thompson had nearly closed the gap by the time of the primary.^[3] However, Walker's attacks during the bitter primary weakened Howlett, and by August, Thompson held a slim lead in the polls.^[3] 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 anyDemocratic 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.

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 forlieutenant governor, former U.S. SenatorAdlai Stevenson III and the Democratic Party selected State senatorGeorge E. Sangmeister as the party-preferred candidate, however he narrowly lost theprimary toMark Fairchild (aLyndon LaRouche 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 theSolidarity Party. When Sangmeister was unwilling to run with Stevenson in the fall, Howlett's son Michael J. Howlett Jr., then a Cook County judge,^[4] 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.

Howlett died in Chicago'sMercy Hospital of chronickidney failure. 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 inSpringfield, Illinois, formerly known as the Centennial Building, is named after Howlett.

• Chicago Tribune Historical Archive online (May 5, 1992), retrieved April 28, 2007.
• Illinois Comptroller web site - History of the Office - Howlett
• "Howlett v. Thompson,"Illinois Issues, November 1976
• 1975-1976 Illinois Blue Book p40

• 1914 births
• 1992 deaths
• DePaul University alumni
• Deaths from kidney failure in Illinois
• 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 Illinois politicians

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