A new poll shows that nearly half of likely Kansas voters want Sandy Praeger to be their next state insurance commissioner, but the Lawrence Republican isn’t taking any chances as Election Day approaches.

“I’m going to spend the rest of this race like I’m four points behind,” said Praeger, who will launch a new batch of TV ads today in Johnson County and Kansas City, Kan. “I’m not going to let up.”

Praeger leads her opponent, Democrat Jim Garner, 48 percent to 29 percent in The World Company Poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C. The results carry a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

“This shows that voters are hearing my message of restoring balance and competition in the insurance marketplace, so that consumers have good choices,” said Praeger, a state senator and former Lawrence mayor.

Garner, a state representative, said several other polls had the race tighter, including one that had him within the margin of error. He expects the gap to tighten even more as Tuesday nears, as his TV and radio ads take hold and voters shift their focus from the governor’s campaign to races lower on the ballot.

“I’m confident, as more people learn about us and learn more about this race  we’ll win on Tuesday,” Garner said.

Karen Exon, a professor of history and political science at Baker University who follows elections, said the poll indicated Garner had a tough  but not insurmountable  hill to climb. The poll found that 23 percent of voters were undecided.

Garner consistently has attacker Praeger for accepting campaign contributions from the insurance industry, Exon said, but the message apparently hasn’t resonated with voters, while Praeger’s professional stature has.

“If there ever was an election where the electorate would look carefully at issues of fairness and conflict of interest, this would be the one, after all we’ve been through with Enron and Arthur Andersen,” Exon said. “He has a better chance right now of that resonating with voters than he would have in any previous election.”

Praeger said that less than 20 percent of her campaign funds came from the insurance industry, and vehemently denied any insinuation that she could “be bought” by any special interest group.

Poll results for other statewide races:

l Treasurer: Republican Lynn Jenkins leads Democrat Sally Finney, 40 percent to 32 percent, with 28 percent undecided.

l Secretary of state: Republican incumbent Ron Thornburgh, with 50 percent, leads Democrat David Haley (21 percent) and Reform candidate Charles St. George (2 percent), while 27 percent are undecided.

l U.S. Senate: Republican incumbent Pat Roberts, with 71 percent, leads Libertarian Steven Rosile (4 percent) and Reform candidate George Cook (3 percent), while 22 percent are undecided.