I suspect that Arnold’s announcement has triggered an inexorable sequence of events. Grayout’s only hope now is for the courts to save him, and the prospects for that don’t look good. The Dems realize this, and now know that they have to have someone on the ballot to save the governor’s mansion in Sacramento.

KNX has just announced that Bustamante is running and will announce tomorrow. He makes the most sense for a Dem candidate–he’s the guy who the voters already elected to take over if the governor could no longer carry out his duties. He’s, in a sense, already acting governor, due to the recall situation, so he can plausibly run as the incumbent, or as close to one as can be had, other than Davis himself.

Only one problem. While he’s not as corrupt or nauseating as Davis, he’s probably about as dim, and most California Dems know it.

This thing is really a variation on the classic game-theory scenario called the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

If you believe that the voters want to keep a Democrat in the governor’s office (which, in most California Democrats’ conceit, they do), it’s in the interests of all the Democrats to cooperate, and not put another Democrat on the ballot. If they do, there will be an attractive alternative for the California electorate to get rid of Davis, because they get to not only toss out the disgusting Davis, who even they hate, but they also get to replace him with different one of their beloved Democrats (you know, the party that’s driven the state into a muddy ditch in the past several years).

If a single Democrat breaks ranks, and runs, then he would have a good chance of winning, because the Republican vote will be split among Issa, Scharzenegger, and whatever other Elephant decides to run. But once a single Democrat defects, others will be encouraged to as well, because the game is up, and they can’t keep Davis, and may miss their only chance at the governor’s mansion (particularly those who’ve been salivating for it). If they all cooperate, they all win, but someone who defects gets a higher payoff than the prize for cooperating, so once Bustamante makes a formal announcement, expect a Donkey stampede between tomorrow and Saturday evening.

And also expect them to all be “terminated” in October.

[Update on Thursday afternoon]

Issa has announced that he’s not running. He says he wants to stay in Congress to see the Middle East “peace process” continue to move forward. One wonders if the White House made him an offer he couldn’t refuse (perhaps their support for a Senate run against Boxer next year?).

This is another devastating blow to Governor Low Beam. The Dem story line has been that Issa was just doing this to buy an election, and make himself governor. With Arnold entering, and Issa dropping out, their “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” hysteria is looking ever more laughable.

The Donkeys have to be in full melt down at this point.