THE political career of Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the balance yesterday after voters emphatically rejected all four of his proposals for reforms in California.

The state governor had spent $7 million (£4 million) of his own money on the campaign. Coming only two years after his spectacular rise from Hollywood action star to the leader of the world’s eighth largest economy, Mr Schwarzenegger’s resounding defeat at the polls on Tuesday suggests that fame can get you only so far in politics.

His term ends next year, but critics say that the governor is already a “lame duck”. His rivals for the governorship may include Warren Beatty, the Democratic activist and one-time Hollywood heart-throb who followed the governor around the state during the last days of his campaign.

In a huge ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills late on Tuesday night, Mr Schwarzenegger refused to admit a total defeat. Smiling, with Maria Shriver, his Democrat wife, beside him, he said: “Tomorrow we begin anew. You know, with all my heart I want to do the right thing for the people of California.” With a humbleness that has recently become his trademark, the governor added: “I recognise that we also need more bipartisan co-operation. I promise I will deliver that.”

Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic senator, described the “no vote” as the most significant in modern Californian political history. “It ought to cause serious reflection by the governor,” she added.

Using a political loophole devised in 1910, Mr Schwarzenegger had put four new laws directly on Tuesday’s ballot, as a way of bypassing Democrats in the state legislature. He had banked on his popular appeal bringing out supporters, as it had in the infamous “recall” election of 2003.

The new laws would have limited state spending; extended the probationary period of teachers; transferred the responsibility for electoral boundaries from politicians to judges; and curbed union power.

Part of the reason for the Governor’s loss was a ferocious $100 million (£57million) campaign of negative TV adverts funded by the unions. The advertisements featured teachers, firefighters and nurses criticising Mr Schwarzenegger and urging people to “Vote No” to his proposals. There were more than two union adverts for every one of the Governor’s.

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