Key insider used talents to lift Ryan

By Ray Gibson and Rick Pearson, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters Ray Long and Christi Parsons contributed to this report
Published April 3, 2002

Scott Fawell had the perfect Republican pedigree when now-Gov. George Ryan tapped him in 1993 to become his chief of staff in the Illinois secretary of state's office.

Fawell is a member of a prominent DuPage County Republican family, known as the "Fighting Fawells" for their rough-and-tumble campaigns in DuPage.

A shrewd insider who could handle the day-to-day chores of running the secretary of state's office, Fawell brought Ryan something else the ambitious politician needed: He knew the political movers and shakers who could help prepare Ryan for a run for governor.

At Ryan's secretary of state operation, Fawell was not just chief of staff but also Ryan's trusted adviser, counselor and confidant. His autocratic style, according to insiders, made him the de facto secretary of state, freeing up Ryan to enjoy--and exploit--the ceremonial and political trappings of one of the state's largest offices.

Ryan ceded to Fawell the authority to run virtually every aspect of the secretary of state's office, overseeing divisions that handle everything from license plates to car dealer inspections. If someone directly asked Ryan for something, the request invariably went to Fawell.

"Anybody who knew the operation of that office knew ... Scott wanted desperately to be, for all intents and purposes, the secretary of state without the title," said one former associate. "He exercised all the duties of the office. He hired and he fired. He forced people out. He surrounded himself with his own loyalists, not George's loyalists."

On Tuesday, Dennis Culloton, the spokesman for Ryan, described Fawell, 44, as "a talented young man" and someone Ryan "considers a friend."

Yet insiders say that even though Fawell often accompanied Ryan on trips and vacations, theirs was not a social relationship.

"It was business. You couldn't, if you were Scott, let George out of your sight for long," said one Ryan adviser, noting that otherwise Fawell risked losing control.

When Ryan ascended to the governor's office, he rewarded his top adviser and former campaign manager by appointing him in 1999 to CEO at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, a job that pays at least $195,000 a year.

Investigation kept growing

Ever since Operation Safe Road, the federal investigation of corruption at the secretary of state's office, spun off into a probe of leases and low-digit license plates, Fawell's role has been under scrutiny.

Fawell has insisted for nearly a year that he had done nothing wrong. He could not be reached for comment after Tuesday's indictment.

Others were quick to praise his political talents.

"Scott was very dedicated and very hardworking," said Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood, whose campaign staff shared office space in 1998 with the governor's campaign staff and Fawell.

But Wood, who gained a reputation as a tough taskmaster with the campaign staff, acknowledged that she didn't always get along with Fawell, who friends said has a hot temper and is equally driven.

"I would say there were times that I had disagreements in terms of how I wanted to run the campaign and where our priorities needed to be and how I wanted to run things in a certain way," she said.

In 1981, Fawell was fresh out of college when he took a job in Milton Township in DuPage County as administrator. He left in 1984 to work in the re-election campaign of then-U.S. Sen. Charles Percy, a Republican. He joined the secretary of state's office in 1985 under Jim Edgar but later went to work for Ryan in the lieutenant governor's office.

But it was the thrill of political combat that Fawell most enjoyed, said those who worked with him. He was a top aide to Greg Baise, who managed Gov. James R. Thompson's successful 1986 re-election bid.

Fawell was assigned to get-out-the-vote campaigns mainly in DuPage County, but also spent an enormous amount of time Downstate, said Baise, now head of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association.

"It was more immersion than being led by the hand," a friend said. "He worked tremendous hours, always. Came in early and left late."

Two years later, Fawell, then working for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, was the Illinois deputy director of then-Vice President George H.W. Bush's presidential campaign.

Proper political lineage

By 1989, Ryan was aiming his sights on the secretary of state job and immediately turned to Fawell to manage his campaign. For Ryan, it was the first time he had ever run for statewide office on his own, and Fawell had the proper political lineage. Fawell's mother, Beverly, had served under Ryan in the House as a state representative and, as one Ryan friend noted, "In George's world, those kinds of family ties account for a lot."

In the 1990 race, Ryan trailed the now deceased Jerome Cosentino, the Democratic state treasurer, badly in the polls. But Cosentino stumbled in the final days when he was caught up in a banking scandal involving personal loans. Ryan--and Fawell--went on to victory.

As secretary of state, Ryan first appointed Ira Loeb, a former IRS agent, as his chief of staff, but Loeb later fell ill and Ryan turned to Fawell to run the office in 1993.

Fawell then began lining up his team, a network that owed their allegiance to him rather than Ryan.

Among his first hires was Larry Hall, a former West Chicago high school friend, who was tapped to manage all the secretary of state facilities in northern Illinois, a prime job.

Hall pleaded guilty last year to rigging bids and taking kickbacks in the job, and he has been cooperating with federal investigators. In a plea agreement, he said he also traded low-numbered license plates for campaign contributions after he consulted a top secretary of state official. Fawell has denied that he was that official.

Other Fawells, too, have found themselves at the center of controversy.

His uncle, Michael Fawell, was convicted twice in two separate cases, including mail fraud stemming from a 1983 bankruptcy fraud, and theft and official misconduct in 1985. The 1985 case stemmed from his role as the DuPage County public guardian, and he was accused of looting estates of $17,450.

Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune