Loffredo, incumbents return in Lake Villa

Voters in Lake Villa on Tuesday gave the current village leadership another four years, electing incumbents for mayor and three trustee spots.

With all nine precincts reporting, unofficial totals showed longtime incumbent Mayor Frank Loffredo easily defeating challenger Mona Mustafa 584 to 238 votes.

Loffredo, a retired college professor, has served 16 years as mayor and lists continuing economic development plans for the downtown and Metra station areas as a top issue.

Loffredo ran with incumbent village trustees Kathy Battistone, Kevin Kruckeberg and James McDonald as the Lake Villa 1st party.

All three were elected to another term, besting challenger Joyce Frayer, who previously had served 12 years as mayor and 14 years as trustee. She was defeated by Loffredo in 2009.

Unofficial results showed Battistone the leading vote-getter with 556 votes, followed by McDonald with 527 votes and Kruckeberg with 497 votes. Frayer had 378 votes.

Mustafa, a sales and marketing professional was making her first run at elected office. She filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Elections against the Lake Villa Township Baseball League for endorsing Loffredo and his slate in an email and also named Lake Villa 1st as receiving the benefit of what she said was an “illegal” communication.