(Photo via azgovernor.gov)

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey

An effort to recall Gov. Doug Ducey, before he runs again in 2018, has failed.

Leonard Clark said he knew it was a long shot when he began organizing a recall drive against Ducey.

"If you look at it from that perspective," he told Capitol Media Services, "Were the odds against it ... greatly against it? Yes."

But, the longtime activist said he launched the campaign with the hope citizens were fed up after Ducey signed measures making it harder for Arizonans to propose and enact their own legislation.

"I can put up with a lot of things. But when you pretty much make it impossible to have initiatives by regular citizens who don't have a lot of money," he said. "That's just like killing a state tradition."

He wouldn't say how many signatures he collected, but he did not have the 376,604 valid signatures needed to force a special election.