LOS ANGELES —— On a day of fiery, last-minute campaigning, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday jetted toward a climactic Election Day showdown with Democrats and California's powerful unions that could blot his re-election hopes or provide fresh evidence of his populist clout.

"I'm never going to give up because I have the people power," Schwarzenegger told cheering supporters at a Roseville retirement community in suburban Sacramento, one of seven stops on a statewide fly-around.

As the Republican governor hopscotched from event to event in a private jet, thousands of teachers, nurses and firefighters were preparing to knock on doors to urge voters to turn against his slate of four ballot initiatives. The measures are designed to better control state spending and undercut the power of public employee unions and the state's majority Democrats.

In a widely played radio ad, Schwarzenegger nemesis Warren Beatty tells voters, "Don't give him more power." Another union ally with Hollywood sparkle, director Rob Reiner, was planning to phone voters to rally opposition turnout.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Beatty warned that passage of the proposals could have a ripple effect in other states, where many of the governor's corporate supporters have ties.

"You have to look inside these Trojan horses and see what is really there. They are deceptively named, and they are not what they appear to be on the outside," Beatty said of the initiatives.

Democrats and labor unions have spent more than $100 million to defeat the governor, outspending Schwarzenegger by about 2-1. Their campaign —— casting the governor as an enemy of working people —— appears to have worked so far. Several recent independent polls show none of Schwarzenegger's proposals with majority support among likely California voters, with two of them running far behind.

Schwarzenegger has dismissed polls and cast the election as a continuation of the 2003 gubernatorial recall election. He has sought to recapture the outsider credentials that propelled him to office that year.

"Give me the tools so I can make the changes in California," he said at the Del Webb Sun City retirement community in Roseville. "That's why people sent me to Sacramento, to fix the broken system."

After starting his day at a Chico diner, Schwarzenegger followed the Roseville event by campaigning at an ale house in the east San Francisco Bay area suburb of San Ramon before heading by private jet to Fresno, Riverside, Anaheim and Del Mar.

At Fresno County Republican headquarters, Schwarzenegger was cheered by about 30 supporters while a dozen nurses protested nearby. The governor grabbed a telephone and made a personal pitch to a voter on the line.

Outside, Fresno nurse Arlis Rossiter complained that the governor was trying to silence those who disagree with him.

"He's a dictator," Rossiter said, waving at a car that was pulling an anti-Schwarzenegger sign.

Strategy on both sides has focused on energizing core supporters, with voter turnout likely to be a deciding factor for many of the initiatives. The secretary of state has projected that 42 percent of registered voters will cast ballots in what will be California's fifth statewide special election.

For Republicans, the get-out-the-vote effort has involved an appeal to Christian conservatives to support an abortion-related initiative that the governor endorses but hasn't campaigned for. Republican pollsters hope a wave of conservatives turning out for Proposition 73, which would require doctors to notify parents or guardians when a minor seeks an abortion, will translate into trickle-down support for the governor's measures.

Democrats and labor groups have focused on getting union members to the polls, encouraging a blanket "no" vote on most of the eight initiatives on today's ballot.

With polls showing his popularity at an all-time low, Schwarzenegger has the most at stake.

The defeat of his proposals would leave him looking politically vulnerable just as his 2006 re-election campaign gets under way. But with polls running against him, winning even one initiative would remind Democrats that his public standing may be only temporarily damaged.

The governor called the election in June to promote three initiatives: Proposition 74, which would lengthen teachers' probationary period from two years to five and make it easier to fire veteran teachers; Proposition 76, which would set a state spending limit and give the governor authority to make midyear budget cuts; and Proposition 77, which would transfer the power to draw legislative boundaries from state lawmakers to a panel of retired judges.

Schwarzenegger later endorsed Proposition 75, which would require public employee unions to get written permission from members before using their dues for political purposes. Schwarzenegger has since included that measure in his four-part agenda.

Two other propositions offer dueling visions to lower prescription drug costs for the uninsured, while another seeks to reregulate part of California's electricity market.

The election has created a sharp partisan divide. Polls have shown Republicans largely supportive of the governor, with Democrats and independents mostly opposed.

The governor has been dogged throughout the campaign by teachers, firefighters, nurses and others opposed to the election.

At the Roseville retirement community, the governor knocked on doors along a neat, flag-lined street, urging residents to vote.

Richard Witt, who had the governor autograph an Austrian Schwarzenegger stamp, said he supported all the governor's measures except the teacher tenure proposal. But Witt's wife, Lois, a Democrat, voted against each.

"I think a lot of things do need to be changed," she said, adding, "I don't want to see the teachers hurt, or the nurses, or the firemen."

California has held four statewide special elections since 1910, putting a combined 15 ballot measures before voters. Seven of those were approved, including a half-cent sales tax to support law enforcement in 1993.

In the past, voters have turned back initiatives similar to some of those being pushed by Schwarzenegger. Between 1982 and 1990, voters rejected several proposals to change the way the state draws political district boundaries. In 1973, voters rejected Proposition 1, championed by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, which would have cut income taxes and placed strict controls on state spending.