SAN FRANCISCO -- State Finance Director Tom Campbell is stepping down after less than a year in the job to join the campaign team promoting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" ballot initiatives.

Beginning Thursday, Campbell will take unpaid leave from the Department of Finance to help Schwarzenegger sell his initiatives, which will go before voters in a Nov. 8 special election.

The Republican governor wants to cap state spending, strip lawmakers of the power to draw political boundaries and lengthen the probationary period for teachers from two years to five.

"Gov. Schwarzenegger is working to change California for the better, but we are at a historic crossroads," Campbell said in a statement issued by the California Recovery Team, Schwarzenegger's campaign arm. "The state has two options: It can continue to spend more than it takes in, or the people can reform the system."

Campbell is expected to leave state government and return to his post as dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley at the end of the special election campaign, Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer said.