As an ex-Californian, I’ve been following the recall drive in California with a bit of interest. One thing that came up on a talking head type show was that, if he wanted to end this, Davis could simply step down and let his Lt. Gov take over.
At this point, it seems, few think that he’s likely to do that, but just how late can he do it? I suspect he can do it all the way up to the recall election without much trouble, but can he resign before the polls close on Oct. 7th if it’s clear he’s going to lose?
He can’t at this point. Or he CAN, but the recall election happens anyway. Once the election date was set, it was too late for Davis to stop it by resigning. From Slate:
Some legal scholars now speculate that if Davis resigned and Bustamante became governor, and the recall was successful that BOTH Davis and Bustamante would be out of a job.
However, no one knows for sure what would happen with Bustamante, the Lt. Governor, as this is completely uncharted territory.
Davis won’t resign however, so any talk is speculative.