At last, some things are for sure.
There will be an election on the question of whether to recall Gov. Gray Davis.
It will take place on Oct. 7.
The ballot will include the election of a successor in the event voters remove Davis from office.

That's a lot to get settled, given the sea of uncertainty that is California politics at the moment. Give Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante credit for making the situation better instead of worse.

Bustamante had raised that prospect earlier this week, when he and his aides began to muse on the question of whether the recall election had to include a vote on a successor to the governor. Those musings, based on readings of the state constitution that could charitably be called fanciful, raised the prospect that the question of choosing a successor might fall to an obscure commission that would be controlled by Democrats, or that Bustamante might simply declare that he alone had the constitutional right to assume the governorship if voters threw Davis out.

Either of those options would have plunged the state into even deeper political chaos. But apparently Bustamante listened to more sensible counsel. On Thursday, he set the election for the latest possible date and ordered that it include a successor ballot.

There were several practical effects to those decisions. Settling the question of a successor ballot spares the state a needless and acrimonious legal wrangle.

Holding the election as late as possible gives county election officials around the state the maximum amount of time to get ready for an election they are totally unprepared to administer. And the Oct. 7 date gives potential candidates the maximum amount of time to get into the race.

But if the date of the election and the nature of its ballot are now clear, plenty of other things remain in doubt.

The election comes at a time when many California counties are in the process of junking their old punch-card ballot systems. How they will get new voting systems in place in the next 11 weeks and how well those systems will work is anybody's guess.

Who will actually appear on the ballot is also unsettled. It's possible that voters will confront a ballot with a dozen or more names, some of them familiar, many of them more or less obscure. Prominent Democrats are still promising to stay off the ballot. So far, no moderate Republicans are saying they will run. Will this election offer voters any viable option to Davis? At this point, no one can say.

What unintended and unforeseen consequences will the recall have? One already has become apparent. Shortly after Bustamante announced the election date, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its rating on California bonds three notches, which will cost the state millions in extra interest. Uncertainty, it seems, carries a price tag.

And then there is the most important uncertainty of all -- will Californians vote to recall Davis? Current polls show considerable ambivalence about the question, which is understandable.

After all, voters just elected Davis to a second term less than a year ago. Is he really worse now than he was then? State government is so chaotic at the moment that lawmakers and the governor can't even pass a budget. Will tossing Davis help, or make things worse?

What if the choices on the ballot include no Democrats and no moderate Republicans? What if the whole campaign degenerates into an orgy of mudslinging and name-calling? What if ...

Plenty of uncertainties remain. But at least Californians now know the date of the election and what kind of election it will be. At the moment, maybe everybody should just be grateful for small favors.