Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger gives a thumbs up as he leaves a polling place in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles November 8, 2005. (Photo: Xinhua/Reuters)

    BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhuanet)-- Two days after suffering a stinging election defeat, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that he alone was at fault for the decisive voter rejection of the four ballot measures he had promoted.

    "The buck stops with me," he told reporters Thursday during a Capitol news conference, referring to the clean sweep against his proposals in Tuesday's special election. "I take full responsibility for this election. I take full responsibility for its failure."  

    Majority voters in the Tuesday election said no to the governor' s proposals to cut state spending, redraw California's political map, restrain political clout of unions and limiting teachers' rights to secure a tenure.

    The propositions had been meeting strong opposition from unions of public workers, especially nurses, firefighters and teachers across the state.

    Schwarzenegger, who tried to capitalize on his once-robust box-office appeal to pitch his measures, largely shunned face-to-face debates with political opponents by sticking to friendly exchanges with admiring supporters during his campaign. 

    Analysts said the Republican governor used the same strategy he employed in the 2003 recall campaign, which swept him into office by selling his image as a political outsider determined to clean up the state's troublesome politics with the same resolve he showed on the screen.

::::::	California voters reject Schwarzenegger's reform agenda
::::::	Schwarzenegger's reform agenda falters
::::::	California voters to decide on Schwarzenegger's reform agenda

    Schwarzenegger never seemed to make the transition from celebrity to chief executive, said Ken Khachigian, a longtime Republican strategist who was a speech writer for former president Ronald Reagan.

    "The problem is that it didn't wear very well over a period of time. After a while he was a governor, not an actor, and it's quite a different role," Khachigian was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying Wednesday.

    Polls showed Schwarzenegger's once-solid bipartisan support was steadily eroding since then, as his opponents, mainly labor organizations, spent tens of millions of dollars in TV ads against him after he called for the special election.

    Unions and their Democratic allies called Schwarzenegger's reform agenda as an assault on nurses, firefighters, teachers and other public workers, and their campaign against the governor has significantly battered his image as he prepares to seek reelection in 2006, local political analysts said. Enditem

    (Agencies)