The church-storming two days before Tuesday's vote was bipartisan: Democrats Jim Davis and Rod Smith toured predominantly black churches in South Florida, while Republicans Charlie Crist and Tom Gallagher appealed to mostly white congregants farther north.

Davis and Smith, locked in a tight race, talked about public schools and hurricane insurance. Gallagher talked about abortion and gay rights, sticking to his strategy of trying to appeal to religious conservatives.

In one of the most dramatic moments from the campaign trail Sunday, Bishop Thomas Masters of Hilltop Missionary Baptist Church in Riviera Beach asked Davis -- from the pulpit -- why he opposed restitution for Wilbert Lee and Freddie Pitts, two wrongfully convicted black men who spent 12 years in prison.

Meanwhile, Smith spoke from the pulpit at two of the five black churches he attended in Miami-Dade County about ''the terrible miscarriage of justice'' for Pitts and Lee. Parishioners murmured in recognition of the names of the two black men sentenced to death.

Smith tried to draw a contrast between Davis' vote 16 years ago and his own stance earlier this year after Martin Lee Anderson, a black 14-year-old, was beaten by guards at a Panama City boot camp and died. Smith helped pass legislation to overhaul boot camps statewide.

''It's about whether you make the political decision or whether you do the right thing,'' Smith told worshipers at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Miami.

Smith's sugar-industry allies have pressed the attack on Davis by mail, radio and phone. Davis' supporters have hit back with tough television ads criticizing Smith's vote for a bill that delayed aspects of the Everglades cleanup.

Sugar growers have also intervened in the Republican race, financing an attack ad against Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer, by falsely suggesting he had ethical troubles that led to higher insurance rates.

Thus the two levels of politicking played out in the last days of the campaign: candidates praying in houses of worship while they battered each other on television in voters' living rooms.

Crist and Gallagher both plan to spend today campaigning in South Florida, finishing up at the University of Miami-Florida State game at the Orange Bowl. Davis will be there, too. Smith is scheduled to attend a Labor Day picnic at Tropical Park hosted by the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee.

Trailing by double-digits in the polls, Gallagher spent Sunday in North Florida, the heart of the state's most conservative region. He stopped at three churches to spread his message against abortion, same-sex marriage and amnesty for undocumented workers.

In the crowd was John Roberts, 55, a Pensacola high school teacher and vice chairman of the county's Republican Executive Committee who two weeks ago said he was supporting Crist.

On Sunday, Roberts was wearing a Gallagher sticker. He switched, he said, ''not because of what Gallagher said, but what Crist said'' during the Republicans' first televised debate. Crist's support of civil unions for gay couples, his opposition to the repeal of a landmark abortion rights case, and his reference to Abraham Lincoln seeking ''malice toward none, with charity for all'' persuaded him to change his vote.

Crist attended only two churches but made his appearances count, especially at the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, where 3,000 people saw him stand and wave.

The high point of the service -- which included baptisms in a pool towering high above the auditorium that can hold nearly 10,000 people -- was a song that urged people to ''run to Him'' and hand their troubles over to God: One by one more than 25 members of the audience brought up pieces of luggage and dropped them by the front altar as the song played.

Crist seemed to take it to heart by the time he jetted to the Fort Lauderdale Arts Festival. There, amid the glad-handing and friendly banter with voters, Broward County Commissioner Jim Scott told Crist, the front-runner, not to worry about the upcoming vote.

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