A final pre-primary poll shows Republican John Brunner leading Todd Akin by 35-30 percent with Sarah Steelman at 25 percent.

The remaining 10 percent of voters say they are undecided or plan to choose another candidate.

Brunner's strength: middle-of-the-road Republicans.

Akin's strength: voters who call themselves "very conservative." Akin leads Brunner by 33-30 percent among those in that camp.

PPP is regarded as a Democratic pollster. And Democrats in Missouri these days are praying for an Akin win, believing he's the most beatable.

With that in mind, PPP concludes this:

"Despite Brunner's modest lead there are a couple of reasons to think an upset is possible on Tuesday night. One is that Akin leads Brunner 35-33 among voters who say they're 'very excited' about casting their ballots on Tuesday."

And this:

"Brunner's overall advantage is based on a 37-31 advantage over Akin with 'somewhat excited' voters and a 36-21 lead with those who say they're 'not that excited.' If we count only the 'very' and 'somewhat' excited voters Brunner's lead over Akin shrinks to only two points."

And also this:

"The other reason an upset seems possible is that Akin appears to have the momentum in the closing stretch. It's been more than two months since PPP last polled this race but compared to a Mason Dixon poll a week ago Akin's up 13 points while Brunner's gained only two points and Steelman's actually dropped by a couple.

"If that trend continues right on through election day Akin might be able to pull out a narrow victory.

A few other notes on the crosstabs:

-Brunner is edging Steelman 35-33 among Tea Party voters with Akin at 28%. There is no real clear Tea Party supported candidate in this race the way there was in Texas last week.

-Akin leads 36-35 among seniors. Brunner is ahead overall because he's up 8 points with younger voters.

-There's a significant gender gap with Brunner ahead by 14 points with men, but Akin up 2 with women. Steelman is actually doing better with male voters (29%) than she is with women (21%).

-Brunner (54/18) and Akin (54/17) have nearly identical favorability numbers, while Steelman (41/35) is not seen as positively.

It doesn't look like there will be too much intrigue in any of the other major statewide primaries:

-For Governor Dave Spence leads with 42% to 15% for Bill Randles, 12% for Fred Sauer, and 3% for John Weiler. With 29% of voters still undecided Spence should end up over 50% in the final count.

-For Lieutenant Governor it looks like Peter Kinder will probably hold on and win renomination. He's at 42% to 30% for Brad Lager, 6% for Mike Carter, and 5% for Charles Kullmann. With 29% of voters either undecided or supporting Carter or Kullmann there's a scenario where those folks unify around Lager and let him come from behind but the most likely outcome is a weak Kinder victory around or a little bit below 50%.

-The race for Attorney General doesn't look like much of a race at all with Ed Martin leading Adam Warren 46-17.