A proposed ballot measure that would limit public employee unions' ability to collect dues for political purposes has been abandoned because sponsors saw they'd be unable to gather enough petition signatures by the deadline, co-author Mark Bucher of Tustin said today.

Mark Bucher

The "Citizen Power Initiative" aimed to limit public unions' influence over lawmakers by making it harder for them to bankroll campaigns. The proposal called for a ban on paycheck deduction of dues used for political purposes.

Backers were hoping the support of Tea Party activists and a wariness of public employee unions would help make it possible to gather most of the required 694,000 signatures with volunteers.

"We had volunteers working their hearts out, but it just wasn't enough," Bucher said. Advocates did not raise sufficient money to hire a significant number professional signature gathers.

May 3 was the deadline to file the signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Bucher said he now planned to qualify the measure for the ballot in 2012.

Nick Berardino, general manager of the Orange County Employees Association, said the measures failure to qualify was good news.

"They have tried three times to silence the voice of working people and they've failed three times," he said, noting two similar ballot measures that were rejected by California voters. "Whenever you try to silence the voice of working people, you'll fail."

Bucher said he thinks the public pension crisis will continue to grow, and bring more voters support to the effort to limit public unions political influence.