While most Floridians are focused on the intriguing U.S. Republican political battle for the U.S. Senate between Gov. Charlie Crist and former Florida House Speaker, Marco Rubio, another intense race is looming for the person to replace Crist as governor.

According to the latest polls, the gap between the support for likely Republican contender Florida Attorney General, Bill McCollum and the state’s Chief Financial Officer, Democrat Alex Sink, is closing.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted last week gave McCollum 40 percent support, compared to 36 percent for Sink, who could be the state’s first female governor. Earlier this year, polls showed McCollum having over 10 points advantage on Sink.

According to reports on the poll, some voters, especially Independents, do not support McCollum’s initiative to file a lawsuit against the Obama Administration over the health insurance mandate included in the recently signed healthcare law.

The poll indicated that 54 percent of the respondents were opposed to McCollum’s lawsuit, 38 percent said that his action in filing the lawsuit made them less likely to vote for him as governor, compared to 28 percent who said the filing made it more likely to vote for him. Independent voters regarded the filing of the lawsuit negatively 41 to 27 percent.  If Independent voters maintain their stand against McCollum and decide to vote for Sink in November, this could seriously affect McCollum’s chance of succeeding Crist.

Although McCollum has to contend with Republican primary elections in the summer, there is virtually no chance of his challenger, Florida Senator, Paula Dockery of Lakeland, defeating him. The Quinnipiac poll saw McCollum leading Dockery 56 to seven percent, with 34 percent of respondents undecided. Since Sink is running for governor with no challenge from a Democratic contender, she will not have to endure a primary election.

Most Florida political analysts believe that despite the potential problem caused by the healthcare lawsuit, because McCollum is well known and liked in the state, he could be elected governor.  This opinion was supported by the findings in the poll which gave McCollum a 51-25 approval rating for his job as attorney general, compared to a favorable rating of 39-26 percent for Sink. An indication of Sink’s relative anonymity is that 61 percent of those polled said they didn’t know enough about her to form an opinion.

However, a Kissimmee Political analyst who is watching the gubernatorial race closely, believes that Sink has organized a very strong campaign, and she has the “brains, political savvy and personality” to give McCollum a “really strong challenge.”

The analyst also believes that the controversy surrounding the senate race between Crist and Rubio could drive Independents away from state Republican candidates like McCollum, and support the Democrats, which would be a significant advantage for Sink.