Recently re-elected Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board Director Gregg Lindner blasted fellow Director Jeff Hellrung and the Chadds Ford Republican Party for politicizing school board elections, at least in Region C.
“School board elections in Region C are broken,” Lindner said during the Nov. 9 school board work session. Region C comprises Chadds Ford and Pennsbury townships.
Lindner, a Democrat, ran on a ticket with fellow incumbent Democrat Kathy Do and with Beverly Brookes, a lifelong Republican who spent 40 years as a Republican committeewoman in Pennsbury Township. Of the three, only Lindner won.
Republicans John Murphy and incumbent Carolyn Daniels also won.
Lindner said the elections in the region are tough because they became competitive in 2007. Before that, one party ran candidates and “the results were never in doubt.”
“What may be a surprise to people who don’t live in the region, no local election in Chadds Ford, Delaware County, had ever been won by somebody who was not an endorsed candidate of the Chadds Ford Republican Party until I was elected along with my Chester County friend and running mate Kathy Do in 2011,” Lindner said.
He went into some history about his first attempt to get on the ballot eight years ago and how he had to represent himself to argue his case in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas and then Commonwealth Court because the Chadds Ford Republican Party had challenged his attempt to cross-file as both a Republican and Democrat. Lindner won those appeals.
(State law allows for cross-filing in school board and judicial elections.)
“Chester County has never had the politicization that has occurred in Chadds Ford, Delaware County,” he said.
Lindner then made reference to an op/ed piece submitted by Hellrung regarding the 2015 election.
In that letter, Hellrung said “political operatives” — Lindner, Do and Brookes — were running for school board and each had been involved in partisan politics “for many decades,” while the Republican ticket, which included incumbent Daniels, were all political newcomers. He urged people to vote for Daniels, John Murphy and Lorraine Ramunno.
Lindner said Hellrung had every right to comment on the election, but added, “to torture the truth in order to get people elected is not OK – at least not OK for a school board election.”
He challenged Hellrung’s statement calling the Lindner, Do, Brookes ticket as being made up of political operatives.
“If that is the case, [we] are a sad team of political operatives because we had no party machinery and a political committee that included only the three of us,” Lindner said.
He said he has only attended one Delaware County Democratic Committee meeting, and that was more than a decade ago. And while he acknowledged that Do previously worked for former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and later for former U.S. Rep Joe Sestak, he said it would be “insulting” to call her a political operative since she’s never been a committee person or participated in a political action committee (PAC).
Yet, Lindner further said the Chadds Ford Republican Party leadership pulled candidates’ strings.
“No member of the endorsed Chadds Ford Republican Party that lives in Delaware County participated in any debate of any kind, whether for supervisor or school board. It was not a coincidence. It is a political strategy, and it worked. The strategy was that the party would take precedence over positions.”
Lindner also blasted the GOP for sending out material saying what Brookes could or could not do if elected because her daughter is a teacher in the district, but said there had been no such letter-writing campaign when Vic Dupuis, the current board president ran for office even though he had a daughter who was teaching in the district.
“The other candidates sent out a letter for which the premise had already been discredited. This is the purest definition of scurrilous and bullying political attack,” he said.
In closing, Lindner added: “Mr. Hellrung, you can twist the truth with the best I have seen. That will be the prism through which I’ll view your future comments…The minimum requirement for running for school board should be recognition as candidates that you owe the community a couple of debates.”
Hellrung made no comment during the work session, but said in an email later, “I think that Gregg is very disappointed by the election results. I believe that everything I said in the campaign was truthful and appropriate. He is seeing my comments through a different lens. He is entitled to his own perspective on events.
“If there really is a dominant Republican machine in Chadds Ford, then the Republican primary winners would have all been elected. His election is proof that voters in Region C split their tickets…I wish Gregg the best and hope to have a good working relationship with him on the board.”
Other business
School board directors interviewed three people, Jeanne Best, Elise Anderson and Albert Iacocca to replace Keith Knauss on the board as a representative from Region A — East and West Marlborough townships. Knauss resigned last month. The board will deliberate and is expected to vote on a replacement during the Nov. 16 meeting. Former Director Corinne Sweeney spoke on behalf of Anderson.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
(12 votes, average: 3.58 out of 5)
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Mr. Lindner is correct to chastize Mr.Hellrung, who inserted himself in to an election in a region in which he does not reside and is ineligible to vote. As a sitting school board member, he should have expressed his preferences in a private rather than public forum. His letter prompted a flurry of vitriol unfit for a “neighborhood” election. Shall Region C and district residents now assume that Mrs. Daniels and Mr. Murphy will repay Mr Hellrung for his endorsement by voting the party position and following Hellrung’s lead? Mr. Hellrung has spent too many years on the board, championing many issues that he purports the majority of the school board supports. Start with standardized testing. His “old school” reliance on testing as a determinent of educational excellence and future success for students has been dispelled many times over. His local anecdotal evidence is the basis for his opinion. I suspect the board majority is much more thorough in evaluating and assessing natl data. He solicits no opinion from constituents…and more valuable input from teachers and students– but instead votes “his truth.” Mr. Hellrung’s self-centered approach and misguided attempts to speak for the board publically and to represent his blog posts as representing board consensus have no place in moving our district forward. Start your evaluating now for the next election when Hellrung is on the ballot. Time for him to go.
With all due respect Mr. Klaver, no it doesn’t. It sounds like someone who is frustrated. I share that frustration because politics is most often ugly and does a disservice to the idea of building community by engaging all points of view. Officials are elected to serve the people, but the election process should also serve the people. We all watch in horror at the gridlock at the national and state level and the disgusting TV ads during the campaign. Why not be intentional and change the behavior here locally?
To be sure, the same thing happens in jurisdictions with Democratic control. The party with a registration advantage feels the need to avoid discussion, and relies on low information voters blindly voting the party line. Winning is everything. Meanwhile, the people suffer because real issues aren’t being explored in a rigorous manner. It is frustrating to be on the receiving end of that behavior.