With a surprise jump into the recall race, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger touched off the heaviest tremors in California's political earthquake to date, saying he wasn't afraid of the attacks sure to come from Democrats and conservative Republicans alike.

　　But the aftershock from a day of topsy-turvy developments in the drive to recall Governor Gray Davis came just hours later, when Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante broke party ranks to become the first prominent Democrat to declare his own candidacy.

　　Another Democrat, state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, will also take out papers to run, his press secretary said early yesterday.

　　The announcements from Bustamante and Garamendi seemed to crack the foundation of Davis' survival plan, which until Wednesday had been keeping fellow Democrats off the ballot. Earlier in the day, Senator Dianne Feinstein appeared to boost that strategy when the popular Democrat ruled out a run, saying the election was becoming "more and more like a carnival every day."

　　Then Schwarzenegger, 56, stole the spotlight when he announced his bid during a taping of the television program, "The Tonight Show," telling Jay Leno that it was the toughest decision he's made since opting for a bikini wax in 1978.

　　"The politicians are fiddling, fumbling and failing," the "Terminator" actor said. "The man that is failing the people more than anyone is Gray Davis. He is failing them terribly, and this is why he needs to be recalled and this is why I am going to run for governor."

　　Schwarzenegger's advisers had said in recent days that he was leaning against putting his name on the October 7 election ballot because of opposition from his wife, Kennedy relative Maria Shriver, niece of Democrats former President John F. Kennedy.

　　Davis' campaign com-mittee said Schwarzenegger was merely the latest in a long list of people who have declared their intent to run, including Hustler publisher Larry Flynt.