Following Monday night’s debate, momentum in Florida’s race for governor appears to be slowly shifting to Rick Scott. Republican Scott jumped to a 2-point lead immediately prior to, and during, his red-hot CNN slugfest with Democrat Alex Sink.

Sunshine State News' nightly tracking poll of likely voters shows Scott moving from a 45-45 tie with Sink on Oct. 20 to a 47-45 advantage Monday night.

Two weeks earlier (Oct. 12-13), Sink held a 48-45 advantage.

Jim Lee, president of Voter Survey Service, which conducted this and all Sunshine State News Polls, said the fundamental dynamics of the race have changed in three weeks.

"These two are so evenly matched," Lee said, "that for the last three weeks they have traded the lead more than once -- yet the election is now in Scott's favor. I say this because Scott leads by nearly 2 points overall (46-45) -- not a lot -- but by 4 points (48-44) among those who say they are most likely to vote."

Sink does have the advantage in independent voters. She's gone from a 45-45 tie on Oct. 6 to a 47-34 lead in the current poll. "However," said Lee, "this is really within the poll's margin of error because of the small sub-sample (186 surveys with independents in Monday's survey)."

How can Scott now be leading when he's losing independents? Lee has the answer:

"I went back to the first poll we did in September after the primaries, and in that poll Sink was leading by 2 points (44-42). But the difference was that Scott did not have the GOP base secured because of the fallout from the primary with (Bill) McCollum."

Lee said election watchers should "stay tuned" to see how this final week plays out, particularly with Sink's text-message-during-the-debate gaffe.

The Scott camp, too, wanted to talk about "Blackberrygate." When asked to comment on the latest poll, Scott spokesman Joe Kildea said, "As voters learn more about Alex Sink, her ballot support continues to drop. From her cheating at the debate, to Obama's failed programs, voters know she's not the one to create jobs in Florida.”

Kildea’s and Lee's reference to state CFO Sink cheating during Monday night’s nationally televised debate is based on an incident during the debate’s second commercial break. Sink’s makeup assistant approached with a cell phone that showed a text message. Sink appeared to neither dismiss the assistant nor refuse to look at the text.

It was a violation of debate rules.

“If she didn’t want to cheat, she would have sent her assistant away, but that’s not what she did. She looked at the message and read it,” said Deena McGregory, a Scott supporter who copied the incident on video, then forwarded it to her contact list. (See a video of the incident below.)

Sink told reporters that the worker who sent the message is no longer with her campaign.

The Sink campaign did not respond to Sunshine State News' requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Florida voters who watched the last televised gubernatorial debate of 2010 had predictions and observations to make Tuesday.

“I watched the debate – well, most of it – and I got up in the morning and voted for Scott,” Port St. Lucie’s William Slay, 54, told Sunshine State News. “I was going to anyway, but I thought he iced it.”