By Adam Allington, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – A new CNN poll has Senator Barack Obama narrowly gaining ground on his opponent John McCain in Missouri.
The poll figures, released earlier this week, show McCain with a four-point lead over Obama based on 940 registered voters in Missouri.
That figure is down about two points from earlier figures
Senator Claire McCaskill, one of Obama's most vocal surrogates, says given McCain's post convention bump across the country, it could be telling that the opposite appears to be happening in Missouri.
"You'd think the polls would be opening up and McCain would be taking a commanding lead, instead you see the polling going in the opposite direction, you see McCains lead narrowing, not widening," says McCaskill.
The Missouri GOP says despite being drastically outspent by the Democrats, McCain's lead remains relatively constant at about five points.
"Senator Obama has deployed and opened about 30 some odd offices and 150 staff and it doesn't seem like they're making any inroads with the people of Missouri," says Tina Hervey of the Missouri Republican Party.
Obama still trails by 20 percentage points among white voters.
His campaign is trying to counter that trend by registering some 75,000 new voters and opening up 27 campaign offices in outstate Missouri.