Longtime GOP consultants launch ads attacking endorsed Republican for school board in Lancaster County

• By Jaxon White / WITF, Ashley Stalnecker / LNP | LancasterOnline

An Elizabethtown Area Republican school board candidate is the target of online ads paid for by a political action committee led by two longtime GOP campaign consultants.

Republican incumbent Danielle Lindemuth is cast as being “too radical” and “too extreme.” Lindemuth said in an email Thursday that she hadn’t known of the PAC prior to seeing the ad targeting her, and she isn’t familiar with anyone associated with it.

Lindemuth was elected in 2021 alongside her husband, Stephen Lindemuth, and two other Republicans who promised to return the schools to the basics – educating children rather than promoting what they described as left-wing causes like masking children, critical race theory and inclusion of students in the LGTBQ community.

Danielle Lindemuth dismissed the ads attacking her, noting she was endorsed by the Republican committee.

“I believe traditional Republicans strongly support me. I hear this daily from constituents in the Elizabethtown area,” she said. “I want to focus on the positive momentum that is building in support of our full Republican slate of Melody Yoder, Liza Bazarian, Stephen T. Lindemuth, and Danielle Lindemuth.”

Lancaster County GOP vice chair Jenna Reath and Elizabethtown GOP chair Nicole Woods didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Elizabethtown GOP committee is running ads that accuse the Democratic school board candidates of being “extremists” who “support radical pronoun policies” and “want boys in girls’ sports.”

The Democratic-backed slate, which includes Kristy Moore and Sarah Zeiders alongside Republicans Steve Stouffer and Bruce Kleindienst, says they’ve tried to avoid mud-slinging in their political ads.

Zeiders called the GOP ads “another distraction.”

“This is another fear tactic. This is something that they are leading people to believe is a larger issue in our community than it actually is,” she said.

 

Behind the PAC

The ad attacking Lindemuth was paid for by the Responsible Government For Central PA PAC, which registered with the Department of State on Sept. 25. The ad uses a photo of Lindemuth smiling and wearing an American flag cowboy hat and sunglasses; text on the ads urges voters to “reject radical Lindemuth for school board.”

The ads do not target any other Republican school board candidates.

Responsible Government For Central PA’s state filing identifies Douglas Rickards as the PAC’s treasurer, a role he has filled for many other GOP-aligned committees, including one backing former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta during his failed gubernatorial run in 2022.

Rickards serves as the treasurer for the Republican Committee of Dauphin County and as the vice chair of the Dauphin County Economic Development Corporation.

He declined to comment.

Robert G. Bransletter is listed as the PAC’s chairman at an address in the Camp Hill area. There were no registered voters in Cumberland County under that name as of June, but there is a registered Republican named Robert G. Branstetter.

Branstetter runs the political consultant company, RGB Politics LLC. Since Branstetter founded it in 2018, RGB Politics has raked in millions of dollars creating websites, digital media and other campaign materials for the House Republican Campaign Committee and top party candidates, like Pennsylvania GOP Chair Greg Rothman, a state Senator from Cumberland County.

The mailers targeting Lindemuth wouldn’t be Branstetter’s first dip into Lancaster County politics.

In 2023, RGB Politics worked on campaign materials for former Court of Common Pleas Judge Karen Maisano’s unsuccessful campaign to hold onto her seat. Maisano had been appointed to the post in 2022 with the backing of two Republican state senators, but the Lancaster GOP declined to endorse her reelection campaign.

Branstetter did not respond to a request for comment.

The donors bankrolling Responsible Government for Central PA will not be public knowledge until early 2026, when its first campaign finance disclosure form is due.

 

‘Sadness for the voters’

Democratic school board candidates took issue with the anti-Lindemuth ad because, as Kleindienst said, they’re all neighbors at the end of the day.

“I feel a little sorry for Danielle,” he said. “Nobody should have to endure this. We’re running for school board. It’s supposed to be nonpolitical.”

When he first saw the ad, Kleindienst said he was positive his slate had nothing to do with it. After researching Branstetter and Rickards, he said to himself, “I guess she’s angered some people in her own party.”

Negative ads aren’t serving Elizabethtown Area voters, Kleindienst said. While canvassing, he said even Republican voters have found it refreshing to see his slate of two Democrats and two Republicans working with each other.

“My second thought is sadness for the voters that they have to be bombarded by all this junk, lies, whatever you want to call it,” Kleindienst said.

Meanwhile, the Democratic-backed slate pushed back on the anti-transgender GOP ads

Though they rallied last year against a decision by the current school board to approve a policy barring transgender athletes from participating on a sports team aligning with their gender identity, the members of the Democratic-backed slate said they don’t have interest in immediately reversing the policy.

Zeiders said the slate agreed they would sit down and look at current policies if they win.

“Without really being seated on the board and really having that brought to us as something we need to address, it’s not much of a conversation we’ve had,” Zeiders said.

The GOP-backed ad includes photos of Lia Thomas, an American swimmer and first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship. She’s become the face of conservative attacks against allowing transgender women in women’s sports.

“What has been obvious is our opposition friends stay mired in controversy and micromanaging as opposed to doing their own responsibilities such as managing our district finances and providing a safe clean building for staff and students to learn,” Stouffer said.

The GOP ad also alleges the Democratic-backed candidates want to “raise taxes 5% per year for nine years” and that they “support a bloated school administration.”

Instead of lodging attacks against the Democratic candidates, Zeiders said the endorsed Republican candidates should have participated in forums and debates – including one hosted by the League of Women Voters.

“You can actually just say your camp is feeling and hoping to do and they wouldn’t even share a stage,” Zeiders said. “It almost feels like they just use a lot of distraction and they don’t actually show up to discuss the issues when that is really what all of us should be doing.”