This cannot happen now. It's too late. A month or two ago, Davis could have resigned and have Bustamante succeed him for the rest of his term. But the deadline for that action has passed, according to state law. At this point, Bustamante could only act as governor until the recall election. Of course, Bustamante could enter the race, but he probably won't because that would be unloyal.
East Coast conservative columnists, from George Will to William Safire and Jonah Goldberg, have panned the recall effort as an illegitimate effort to overturn the results of an election that gave Mr. Davis a second term only eight months ago.
The effort is not legitimate. It is allowed for in the state law. I enough people object to the state law, then it ought to be rescinded or amended in a way to make the recall harder to accomplish (more signatures needed, e.g.)
State law did not really stop the democrats in NJ when they replaced Torricelli.