U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican, is ahead of Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, one of his potential Democratic opponents, by ten points, according to a poll by the conservative Civitas Institute.

Among those surveyed, 43.7 percent backed Burr, while 33 percent picked Marshall.

The poll, released Friday, surveyed 600 voters by live interviews on October 20 and 21 and has a margin of error of 4 percent.

Marshall and Durham lawyer Kenneth Lewis have declared their candidacy for the Democratic nomination to challenge Burr next year. Former state Sen. Cal Cunningham is considering a run.

A new poll has found that 42 percent of North Carolinians say someone else should have U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's seat.

The Elon University Poll found that 19 percent of state residents believe Burr deserves another term in office, according to the survey of 703 state residents that was conducted Oct. 26-29.

The poll also found 29 percent of respondents said they "don't know" if Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, deserves re-election.

Burr’s approval rating stands at 37 percent, the poll found, while 22 percent of respondents disapprove of the way he is handling his job. Forty-one percent don’t know how they feel on his job performance.

Two Democrats have formally entered the race. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and lawyer Kenneth Lewis have filed candidate paperwork.

The poll also asked respondents for their opinions on other political figures.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan: 35 percent approve, 35 percent disapprove, 29 percent don’t know.

Gov. Beverly Perdue: 36 percent approve, 47 percent disapprove, 18 percent don’t know.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Update: The National Republican Senatorial Committee weighed in on the poll. Expect to see this one a lot from Colin Reed, a spokesman for the committee:

In the words of Erskine Bowles just last week, 'nobody works harder or smarter for North Carolina than Richard Burr does.' It speaks to Senator Burr’s strength at home that as national Democrats struggle to recruit a strong challenger, his former opponent continues to offer nothing but praise for his hard work on behalf of North Carolina in the U.S. Senate.

And the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued it's own statement from spokesman Eric Schultz.

Whether it was its when he suggested a run on the banks, his hypocrisy over stimulus funding, or his inexplicable vote against justice for victims of sexual assault, it should come as no surprise that Richard Burr is the most vulnerable Republican in the United States Senate. 

Democratic Senate candidate Kenneth Lewis has received some help from one of the major heavy hitters in the Democratic Party.

Peter L. Buttenwieser of Philadelphia, a long-time Democratic fund raiser, gave Lewis $1,500 to Lewis, an attorney from Chapel Hill, who is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Richard Burr, according to Lewis' latest campaign report.

Buttenwieser is well known in Democratic circles as a big-time fund raiser, Rob Christensen reports. He is also a major donor having contributed about $3 million to the Democratic Party or Democratic candidates during the past decade, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Lewis met Buttenwieser during a fund raising trip to Philly.

Lewis faces Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and possibly other candidates in next May's Democratic primary.

Republican Sen. Richard Burr has been accused by a Democratic opponent of voting against protecting rape victims working as contractors in Iraq, a charge that he denies.

North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall noted that Burr was one of 30 Republican senators who voted last week against an amendment that grew out of a publicized case of a Halliburton employee who was gang-raped by co-workers, Rob Christensen reports.

"Senator Burr has obviously been in Washington too long," said Marshall, who is one of two Democrats who say they will challenge Burr's 2010 bid for a second term. She is also a founder of a rape crisis center. "This is a clear-cut case of right versus wrong, and Richard Burr got it wrong."

Burr has also drawn criticism from TV comedian/commentator Jon Stewart.

But a Burr spokesman said the case was far more complicated, and the amendment offered by Democratic Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., would not have accomplished what its supporters advertised.

"Senator Burr believes violence against women is despicable and intolerable, and those who have committed or abetted such heinous crimes should be subjected to the full weight of the law," said David Ward, Burr's chief spokesman. "Unfortunately, the Franken amendment would not do anything to protect women from violence or to punish criminals. If it had, Senator Burr would certainly have voted for the amendment."

WATER HAZARD: Former Gov. Mike Easley's office intervened on behalf of an exclusive golf club that needed millions of gallons of water during a devastating drought. The club had given Easley a free membership worth $50,000. (N&O)

HARRELL REPLACED: Chris Heagarty, a former director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, will replace Ty Harrell in the state House. Harrell resigned last month to address a campaign finance investigation. When a legislator resigns, his or her party picks the successor. (N&O)

IN THIS CORNER: Lawyer Kenneth Lewis held a public kick-off for his campaign to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate on Sunday. Lewis and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall are running for the right to challenge U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican next year. (N&O)

HAPPENING TODAY: Burr, who needs to raise his profile to take on his Demoratic challengers, is holding an economic development summit in Durham.

Secretary of State Elaine Marshall is touting her early fundraising success as a way to get more money for her U.S. Senate bid.

Marshall is a veteran of Democratic politics, but so far a front-runner for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Richard Burr has not emerged. 

In a newsletter sent to supporters, Marshall's campaign says she raised $180,000 in the two weeks in September after she filed her federal election paperwork. That gives her enough to pay her campaign expenses through May, according to the memo sent to supporters.

While noting Marshall is on track to meet her fundraising goals, the newsletter notes that 60 percent of primary voters are women and that 75 percent of them will be older than 50. The age statistic that is surely meant to suggest that Marshall, 63, may have more appeal than announced candidate Kenneth Lewis, 48, and possible candidate Cal Cunningham, 36.

That last line of reasoning assumes that people only vote for people who are like themselves. Gov. Beverly Perdue didn't get any special support from women either before or after her election, so that theory may not be totally correct.

Will Cal Cunningham officially become a candidate for Senate?

N.C. Spin is reporting in its weekly e-mail blast that their sources say Cunningham "has been buoyed by reports that Secretary of State Elaine Marshall is having some difficulty in securing commitments to her campaign" and that Cunningham intends to announce his campaign to challenge U.S. Sen. Richard Burr?

That's not enough for Dome to call it a done deal, so we now turn to our prognosticator of all things politics, our official tool for separating truth from rumor, our cheap plastic toy — the Magic Eight Ball.

The toy's take:

"Cannot Predict Now."

Well that clears it up.

Is it possible that North Carolina voters aren't happy with Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, but still like him a lot better than any of the Democratic alternatives?

That seems to be the message from the latest survey by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm that surveyed 683 voters from Oct. 2-4.

Burr's approval rating was just 36 percent. That's down slightly from last month's survey, which had Burr's approval rating at 38 percent.

But when voters were asked about possible match-ups with some of the possible Democratic candidates, Burr easily came out on top. Here's a look at what the survey found:

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Secretary of State Elaine Marshall will extend Gov. Beverly Perdue's ban on gifts to the Secretary of State's office.

Perdue's gift ban, which applied to employees in her administration, came after revelations that Verizon Business plied state employees with dinners and gifts. The company has a $51.5 million, no-bid contract with the state.

Marshall said in a statement Monday that her office already bans gifts in certain circumstances. She praised Perdue's order, which is a sweeping ban on gifts to employees.

"The people of North Carolina deserve to know that their state government is operating in unison to reject gifts from those seeking to do business with the state, as well as gifts that could even create any appearance of conflict of interest."

Former state Sen. Cal Cunningham of Lexington continues to act like a U.S. Senate candidate, but he is not yet ready to announce a decision.

Cunningham was working the crowd at the Democrat's annual Vance-Aycock fund raising dinner in Asheville over the weekend, and he spent a few days last week in Washington attending a seminar put on by The Truman National Security Project, which trains young Democrats on security issues, Rob Christensen reports. He also met with Sen. John Kerry of Mass. and others.

But Cunningham said he has not made a decision on whether to enter the 2010 race for the seat now held by Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

"I am continuing to test the waters with Democrats around North Carolina," Cunningham said. But he added: "I am very heartened by the encouragement. North Carolina is looking for energetic new leadership."

Cunningham may be holding off until he sees what Congressman Bob Etheridge of Lillington decides.

Etheridge has been encouraged to get into the race by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which carries a lot of clout because of its ability to bank roll a Senate campaign. But Etheridge has not been moving around the state, and he was not at the Vance-Aycock Dinner, which is considered a must for a potential Democratic Senate candidate.

There are already two Democratic Senate candidates in the race, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Durham attorney Kenneth Lewis. Both Marshall and Lewis hosted hospitality suites at the Grove Park Inn, the site of the dinner.