Marshall Leads Democratic Pack in Race to Oppose GOP's Burr in N.C.

North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall is leading the pack of Democrats hoping to run against GOP Sen. Richard Burr, but half of the voters are still undecided about who they will support in the race, according to a Public Policy Polling survey conducted Feb. 12-15.

Marshall draws 29 percent of the vote with former state Sen. Cal Cunningham at 12 percent, Democratic organizer and fundraiser Kenneth Lewis at 5 percent and lawyer Marcus Williams at 2 percent. Fifty-one percent are undecided.

All suffer at this point from lack of name recognition. Sixty-two percent don't know enough about Marshall to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of her and that number is 84 percent for Cunningham and 81 percent for Lewis.

As for general election match-ups, Public Policy Polling says the numbers have not changed much when it comes to Burr tested against the Democratic field, where Burr continues in the lead but polls only in the mid-40s.He's ahead of Marshall 43 percent to 33 percent with 23 percent undecided. He leads Cunningham by 44 percent to 32 percent with 24 percent undecided. He bests Lewis by 44 percent to 31 percent with 25 percent undecided.

Voters are split at 35 percent each as to whether they approve or disapprove of the job Burr is doing with 30 percent undecided.

"This race doesn't seem like it will move much until the candidates become better known," said Public Policy Polling's Dean Debnam. "It's going to be really interesting to see where things stand at the beginning of May once Democrats have a
nominee."

Follow Poll Watch on Twitter