Only three months after a record-breaking voter turnout in the 2008
election, potential candidates for a North Carolina U.S. Senate
seat in 2010 all start out with very low statewide name recognition.
According to the latest Civitas Poll released today, a majority of
voters in North Carolina are not aware of either the incumbent US
Senator Richard Burr (R) or his two rumored potential opponents in
2010, Congressman Heath Shuler (D), or N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper
(D).
"Opinion of Richard Burr" | "Opinion of Heath Shuler" | "Opinion of Roy Cooper" | |
Very Favorable | 14% | 6% | 14% |
Somewhat Favorable | 23% | 11% | 18% |
Somewhat Unfavorable | 7% | 1% | 1% |
Very Unfavorable | 3% | 1% | 1% |
No Opinion | 30% | 20% | 21% |
Not Aware | 24% | 61% | 44% |
“While Senator Burr enjoys a slightly higher overall favorable
rating than the other two, none of the three potential candidates are
widely known among the electorate,” said Francis De Luca, executive
director of the Civitas Institute. “Congressman Shuler is a virtual
unknown outside of his district in Western N.C.”
Current N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper and US Congressman Heath
Shuler are among the two most publicly speculated candidates to
challenge Burr.
“Despite being in office an additional three plus years, taking over
the highly publicized Duke lacrosse case, and just recently spending in
excess of $2.5 million on re-election, Attorney General Cooper has only
marginally improved his favorability since October 2005,” said De Luca.
Civitas tested voters’ opinion of Roy Cooper back in October 2005:
Favorable: 23%
Unfavorable: 4%
Unsure: 25%
Not aware: 47%
“All three candidates have a tremendous amount of work to do to
familiarize themselves with voters over the next two years. It is
almost as if voters are starting off with a blank slate of candidates
to choose from for their next US Senator,” De Luca concluded.
Read the full release here.
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