Posted on Dec 7, 2023
Missouri abortion-rights initiatives face a ‘torturous’ road to the 2024 ballot. Here's what to...
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Two coalitions are hoping to put abortion on the 2024 ballot in Missouri, where virtually all abortions are illegal. The issue has proven to be a big winner in numerous states, but both groups face the same question: Is there enough time and money to get their proposed amendments off the ground?
Pulling off a successful ballot initiative campaign in Missouri is an undertaking so difficult that one Democratic political consultant compares it to skiing the slalom at the Olympics.
There is a laundry list of deadlines to meet, an army of signature gatherers to hire, a host of legal battles to fight — all with a price tag that can quickly cost millions.
“You’re going downhill at a very fast rate of speed,” said Jack Cardetti, who helped run a number of successful initiative petition campaigns in recent years. “You have to make decisions very quickly. And no matter how well you’re seeing, if you miss a single gate, you’re out, you’re disqualified.”
Two coalitions are hoping to put abortion on the 2024 ballot in Missouri, where virtually all abortions are illegal. The issue has proven to be a big winner on the ballot in numerous states this year, giving supporters hope Missouri will be next.
Pulling off a successful ballot initiative campaign in Missouri is an undertaking so difficult that one Democratic political consultant compares it to skiing the slalom at the Olympics.
There is a laundry list of deadlines to meet, an army of signature gatherers to hire, a host of legal battles to fight — all with a price tag that can quickly cost millions.
“You’re going downhill at a very fast rate of speed,” said Jack Cardetti, who helped run a number of successful initiative petition campaigns in recent years. “You have to make decisions very quickly. And no matter how well you’re seeing, if you miss a single gate, you’re out, you’re disqualified.”
Two coalitions are hoping to put abortion on the 2024 ballot in Missouri, where virtually all abortions are illegal. The issue has proven to be a big winner on the ballot in numerous states this year, giving supporters hope Missouri will be next.
Missouri abortion-rights initiatives face a ‘torturous’ road to the 2024 ballot. Here's what to...
Posted from kcur.org
Abortion
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Posted 5 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The initiative petitions
In mid-November, Jamie Corley, a longtime GOP Congressional staffer, launched a campaign effort for an initiative petition that would add rape and incest exceptions to Missouri’s abortion ban and legalize the procedure up to 12 weeks.
Volunteers are already in the field collecting signatures, Corley said last week. She plans to start recruiting paid signature gatherers before the end of the year.
The path forward for the other coalition, called Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, is less certain. The group filed 11 initiative petitions earlier this year seeking to amend Missouri’s constitution to overturn the state’s abortion ban with limited room for lawmakers to regulate the procedure after viability.
Exactly which organizations are involved in Missourians for Constitutional Freedom is unclear. The only entity publicly connected to the campaign at the moment is the ACLU of Missouri, which represented the coalition in its court fight with Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft over ballot summaries.
The Missouri ACLU’s deputy director for policy and campaigns, Tori Schafer, said in an emailed statement that the coalition “wants to restore access in a meaningful way, and in order to do that MCF needs to win at the ballot box and have a huge amount of support and resources to do it.”
Just before Thanksgiving, the coalition won its legal battle with Ashcroft, allowing it to move ahead with signature gathering — though a decision still hasn’t been made about which of the 11 proposals to move forward. Most would limit lawmakers’ ability to regulate the procedure after viability."...
..."The initiative petitions
In mid-November, Jamie Corley, a longtime GOP Congressional staffer, launched a campaign effort for an initiative petition that would add rape and incest exceptions to Missouri’s abortion ban and legalize the procedure up to 12 weeks.
Volunteers are already in the field collecting signatures, Corley said last week. She plans to start recruiting paid signature gatherers before the end of the year.
The path forward for the other coalition, called Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, is less certain. The group filed 11 initiative petitions earlier this year seeking to amend Missouri’s constitution to overturn the state’s abortion ban with limited room for lawmakers to regulate the procedure after viability.
Exactly which organizations are involved in Missourians for Constitutional Freedom is unclear. The only entity publicly connected to the campaign at the moment is the ACLU of Missouri, which represented the coalition in its court fight with Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft over ballot summaries.
The Missouri ACLU’s deputy director for policy and campaigns, Tori Schafer, said in an emailed statement that the coalition “wants to restore access in a meaningful way, and in order to do that MCF needs to win at the ballot box and have a huge amount of support and resources to do it.”
Just before Thanksgiving, the coalition won its legal battle with Ashcroft, allowing it to move ahead with signature gathering — though a decision still hasn’t been made about which of the 11 proposals to move forward. Most would limit lawmakers’ ability to regulate the procedure after viability."...
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