By EDNA McCONNELL
Formerly staff writer for the Danville, Illinois, Commercial-News, she was editor of the Georgetown News and its two subsidiaries, the Cat/in Courser and the Westville News, and served a resident intecnship with the Illinois State Register. She holds an M.A. degree in public affairs reporting from Sangamon State University.

Howlett, a loyal party man, wants to let the sunshine in

MIKE HOWLETT, secretary of state of Illinois, is a loyal party man.

He appears at rallies, headquarters openings and Democrat Days at fairs. He stumps the state for party hopefuls, doesn't oppose members of his own party, and makes no attempt to disguise his long-time affiliation with Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago.

"Daley is my friend," he says simply, "he never interferes with me." During the recent marathon speaker's race in the House he chided a Republican legislator who had addressed him, "Your Majesty," saying, "If you belonged to our party you would know that there is only one 'Majesty' in it." Strong party ties do not prevent Howlett from working closely with Republicans, however, or from differing with Democrats when he has cause. "When I was elected I became secretary of state for all the people of Illinois, not just the Democrats," he said.

Separate personnel
He parted ways with Gov. Dan Walker last year and joined forces with Republican Attorney General William J. Scott in an effort to establish an independent civil service commission for the personnel under the jurisdiction of the secretary of state. The legislation passed but was vetoed by the governor. It will be introduced again in the current session.

Illinois' secretary of state has no real political enemies—Democrats or Republicans. His philosophy is 'do something good and let everyone know abovt it'

Hewlett feels the legislation is necessary because "it is unsatisfactory for any elected official to have power over the employees of another elected official." All civil service employees were put under the governor's personnel code during the Ogilvie administration, and Hewlett's efforts to get control of his own employees will put him in opposition to Walker again.

Hewlett's relationships with members of the party hierarchy are strained only at the gubernatorial level. He gets on so well with Lt. Gov. Neil Hartigan that one of his sons worked a few months in Hartigan's office. According to an aide. State Treasurer Alan J. Dixon is his personal and professional friend. County chairmen love him because he has not barred them from working for him as Walker has. Regarding his gubernatorial ambitions he says, "I always support the party incumbent in the primary, if he is doing a good job." If the qualifying phrase raises more questions they are turned aside with: "I want to be the best secretary of state that Illinois ever had."

Board of review
Hewlett has established a board of review for his employees who have been dismissed. If the board finds that political considerations were the primary reason for dismissal, it reinstates the employee. To date about 25 per cent of those going before the board have been reinstated.

Hewlett got to the top of state government by hard work, party loyalty, an unflappable personal demeanor and a lot of not-very-muted horn blowing. He admits that his political philosophy is to "do something good and let everyone know about it."

High visibility
Observers agree that Hewlett has the greatest name recognition of any state Democrat excluding the governor. His recent duty as presiding officer of the House of Representatives during the speaker battle brought him national attention via television. His high visibility is carefully orchestrated by a superb staff which is long on courtesy and information and which depicts him as a cost-cutting administrator who demands 100 cents worth for every taxpayer's dollar. At the drop of a question mark there emerges a flood of illustrations. Examples: Hewlett cut the pages in the Blue Book from 856 to 655 and eliminated the color pictures. He had all politicians' pictures removed from driver's license stations and from Rules of the Road. He closed 45 of these stations, terminating 111 employees; he dropped the number of employees under his jurisdiction from "over 4,000 to under 3,600." The year Hewlett came into office

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(1973) the budget appropriation for the secretary of state was $79,086,181, For fiscal year 1974 the appropriation was raised to $85,679,135, and for 1975 it was increased to $92,888,592. In a January speech, Hewlett said his office had improved services while holding costs below the inflationary rise —without taking it out of employees' pay. Since inflation is computed by the federal government on basics (food, clothing and shelter), it is difficult to make a comparative assessment of the inflationary impact on an area of government. If 12.1 per cent is used, Hewlett's 1974 budget of $85,679,135 rises to $96,046,310 in 1975. The actual appropriation was $92,888,592.

The expenses listed in the appropriations as "general office," however, jumped a startling 65.8 per cent in 1975 as compared to a slight decrease in the governor's general office appropriation and a very small increase for the general office appropriation for the state treasurer. Even though total personnel is down, inflationary pressures have driven total personnel costs up slightly: from $30,926.095 in fiscal 1973 to $33,688,944 in fiscal 1974 to $33,768,512 in fiscal 1975 (figures do not include retirement and social security payments). The average annual salary for Hewlett's current 3,600 employees is $9,380, compared to an average salary of $7,731 for the 4,000 employees in 1973.

Last year's rumor
The loyalty of well-treated employees is important to a man who may want to run for office again — and again. Last year's rumor that Hewlett was slated to run for mayor of Chicago (because of Daley's illness) were just that — rumors. Aide Ed Reynolds says flatly, "He was never asked," and adds. Hewlett is interested in government at the state level." Hewlett observes that if he left his present post to become Chicago's mayor, the governor would have the authority of appointing his successor.

"The best way to get into politics," Howlett says, "is to get out of school during a depression." In the words of his official biography, he "left his studies at DePaul University to serve Illinois' state government as bank examiner. " He admits that the appointment as bank examiner was helped by the fact that his father was a friend of the late governor, Henry Horner. It was this foot-in-the-door that led to later jobs and political service.

Attraction to politics
A business administration major in college. Hewlett's work has been in the area of both business and administration. He started his own insurance business, was director of the Chicago area of the National Youth Administration (a depression-born youth-work program), a park district executive, a regional director for the Office of Price Stabilization, and a vice president of the Sun Steel Company. But politics always attracted him. Hewlett enjoys his job and party roie and says so. "People are in politics because they like it," he emphasizes.

Hewlett is married to the former Helen Geary. the only person in his life who has the "power of veto" over any of his important decisions. He would not, he says. run for governor without "some important consultations—like with Mrs. Hewlett." The couple has six children: Mike. Jr.. an attorney; Robert, an investigator for the secretary of state's office: Edward, who owns a travel agency; Catherine (Kitty), a college student in Indiana; and Mary and Helen, high school students who iive at home. "Home" is in Chicago.

The average salary for Howletfs current 3,600 employees is $9,380 compared to $7,731 for the 4,000 employees in 1973

The family lived in Springfield for a time but returned to Chicago, according to an aide, so that Mrs. Hewlett's mother, now in her nineties, could be close to her long-time physician.

In 1950 Hewlett made his first bid for state office and was defeated for the treasurer's spot by William Stratton. In 1956 he battled Elbert Smith at the ballot box for the state auditor's post and was again defeated. On this third try for state office Hewlett was elected auditor in 1961 and has never lost an election since.

"There is no substitute for opening the windows, letting the sunshine in and getting everything out into the light of day," is Hewlett's stated policy. He started his state government career by a now-famous bit of window opening. When campaigning for the auditor's spot in 1960, Hewlett became so suspicious of the incumbent auditor's spending that he hired an accountant to study the auditor's records. The results of the study were eventually placed in the hands of George Thiem, Chicago Daily News reporter, who exposed the corrupt spending in Orville Hodge's office to the startled populace

Honest man, honest people
After 12 years as auditor, Hewlett swept to an easy victory as secretary of state in 1972 where he has been careful to keep the windows open. He says, "There must be an honest man in office with honest people working for him." While such sentiments are the common coin of politicians,Hewlett's supporters sav he can point to a record to back his words.¯

April 1975/Illinois Issues/103