he preliminaries are over; it's time for the main event. Crist vs. Davis. Nelson vs. Harris. Campbell vs. McCollum. Sink vs. Lee. Bronson vs. Copeland. All right, those last three are the undercard. In case you don't recognize them, they're the match-ups for Florida attorney general, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner. All are important but won't attract attention beyond their self-interested constituencies.

Since Sen. Bill Nelson is the prohibitive favorite to win a second term, there's only one main event on the November ballot: the race for governor. We got a preview of how it will play out the day after the primary when Democrat Jim Davis flew into Broward and, a day later, GOP candidate Charlie Crist visited Hialeah.

Davis came by himself, looked haggard and sounded spent. He told a small group that he'll fix the insurance crisis, jettison the FCAT as the be-all, end-all of education reform and promised to automatically restore civil rights to released felons. He also promised to find the reasons for the spate of violence that has claimed more than 25 young lives in Miami-Dade County so far this year. When I pointed out that one reason is the wide availability of guns and asked what he would do about it, he waffled and said he'd look into it. Not promising.

Davis' congressional record is thin, as is true with many Democrats in a Republican-controlled Congress. But Bush is conveniently forgetting how the Tampa congressman took an early and gutsy lead in the House against intervening in the Terri Schiavo case. Still, the governor and Republican leadership are already starting to define Davis before he can define himself. Crist did the same with Tom Gallagher, whom he easily defeated, and now has set his sights on Davis.

Davis' outlined his general election campaign strategy to me in a conversation two weeks before the primary. ''Charlie Crist will say, We've got to stay the course with all of Jeb's policies, and I'll say, Staying the course means more skyrocketing insurance premiums, low graduation rates from Florida high schools, jeopardizing Everglades clean-up and so forth.'' Davis will present himself as the progressive agent of change and portray Crist as the stay-the-wrong-course conservative.

When the gubernatorial candidates' first financial report comes out on Friday, we will know much more about this race. I'll bet that Crist, who raised $14 million for the primary, will report a sizable war chest already, while Davis, who raised a paltry $4 million in the primary, will trail far behind again. I'd also bet that Crist gets his ads up on TV well before Davis, locking in the lead he already enjoys in the polls.

Davis can counter by naming a strong running mate, most likely someone from South Florida. An operative for Alex Penelas is shopping his name around, although the damage the former mayor wreaked on Al Gore's presidential hopes in 2000 has not been forgotten by party leaders. Other names in the mix include state Rep. Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale, a bright young lawyer, and former state Sen. Daryl Jones of Miami, a bright older lawyer. And both, let us note, are black as well as being from South Florida. Davis also scored points with black voters Tuesday by finally admitting that he made a mistake voting against compensation for Pitts & Lee. Welcome, but way overdue.

Crist has wide latitude in picking a running mate, although an accomplished female legislator would make sense. The real challenge for Crist in the next 60 days is showing that he's got a vision for Florida separate and apart from Bush's. And Davis will have to prove that, while he's in the Askew-Graham-Chiles tradition, he's got a mind and vision of his own.

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