Libertyville ousts mayor, three incumbent trustees

Libertyville voters dispatched the old regime Tuesday, and ousted incumbent Mayor Jeff Harger and three trustees.

In the village's first contested mayoral election in 20 years, local attorney Terry Weppler rode a message of dissatisfaction with the lack of responsiveness by village officials to defeat Harger, who was seeking a second term.

With all 21 precincts reporting, unofficial results showed Weppler handily beating Harger, who served eight years as village trustee before being elected mayor. Weppler recorded 3,187 votes to Harger's 1,300, according to unofficial totals.

"People wanted some change," an elated Weppler said at a victory party attended by hundreds of supporters. "We stuck to the issues. Jeff felt like we didn't."

Harger was unavailable for comment. He kept a low profile the last week, but previously had contended the challengers were making misleading statements on issues such as Sunrise Rotary Park.

Challengers had unified under the banner of making village government more accessible.

"We want to look at everything out there and decide what we can do to make this a better community," Weppler said.

Unofficial votes also showed Weppler running mates, Richard A. Moras, Todd Gaines and James "Jay" Justice defeated incumbent trustees Luke Lukens, Bob Peron and Barry Reszel.

"It's not that things were so bad before. It wasn't that they didn't care. It's time for fresh," approach, Moras said.

The result essentially will create a new village board at a time when the village is facing one of the most difficult financial situations in years.

Lukens said the village board has left a six-month budget surplus, but predicted the economy would get worse not better.

"Best of luck to them," he said of the challengers.

"I'm worried about the village. You can't have a board with less than six years of collective experience. I can walk away with my head high."