How many people just up and resign one day? Giving notice is standard fare on any job. I'm required to give 3 months notice, I don't see why the governor of an entire State wouldn't do the same. It takes 3-6 months for a new official to get settled into a job (1 year for the President), it only makes sense to have a period of time before the new guy is "officially" the Governor.
Using the whole "they're doing this on purpose" excuse it would have made much more sense to just have waited 1 month until after Sept 15th or just wait to announce it until then.
