Muller will spend rest of 2022 in Kentucky fighting abortion ban referendum

A November vote on a constitutional amendment in Kentucky that would permanently close the door to any state court judge to style an implicit right to abortion from the State Constitution, including issues related to the life of the mother, has drawn the attention of Michael Muller, who will spend the rest of the year in Kentucky running the campaign to defeat the referendum.

One of New Jersey’s top political strategists, Muller has spent nearly 20 years running the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee.  But with the Kentucky vote emerging as one of the nation’s premier front line political fights following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, Muller has decided to trade a blue state for a red state this year.

Muller is the campaign manager for Protect Kentucky Access, a coalition of non-profit groups, including Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, that is opposing the Kentucky No Right to Abortion in Constitution amendment.

Advocates of the ballot initiative say that passage would prevent a local court from finding a way to permit abortion in Kentucky.    Passage of the amendment would ensure that “there will be no Roe vs. Wade decision in Kentucky,” according to one of the sponsors of  the bill, State Rep. Joseph Fischer.

The question reads: To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion?”

Kentucky is one of thirteen states with a trigger law that banned abortion upon the release of the Supreme Court decision.

Muller was the New Jersey state director of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and for Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 campaign.  He is also the Mount Laurel Democratic Municipal Chairman.

The Democratic governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, supports abortion rights, but Republicans have a supermajority in both houses of the legislature and voted to override Beshear’s veto of the referendum proposal.

Three states – Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi – have gubernatorial elections next year.  The re-election of Beshear will be the top priority of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who is set to assume the chairmanship of the Democratic Governors Association next year.