Public Policy Polling: Marshall & Cunningham closing on Burr

Raleigh, N.C. – Despite improving his job performance ratings from a month ago,
Senator Richard Burr is now in a near tie with Elaine Marshall and barely ahead of Cal
Cunningham following the May 4 primary.

Marshall now trails Burr only 43-42, versus 43-37 last month. Cunningham lags 44-39
after losing 43-35 in April. Marshall does slightly better with Democrats and
independents and about the same with Republicans as Cunningham.

North Carolina voters’ opinions of how Burr is handling his job inched upward from a
negative 32-41 in early April to 37-40 now. Kay Hagan also went from 34-44 to 36-42.
Both improved their margins among independents, Burr from -12 to -1, and Hagan from
-27 to -5. Burr also improved slightly among fellow Republicans.

Cunningham has raised his profile slightly more than has Marshall, and voters have
broken evenly for and against him since April. Now 16% express a favorable opinion of
Cunningham to 18% unfavorable, as opposed to only 5-8 in April. Marshall is still in
positive territory, at 23-20, but voters split somewhat against her, from 19-11 last month.
Marshall is a more polarizing candidate, with significantly better favorability numbers
with Democrats and much worse numbers with Republicans than Cunningham, but that
could be a factor of the impression among both parties’ voters that Marshall was the
winner of the primary and the inevitable challenger to Burr. PPP will release numbers on
the June 22 runoff tomorrow.

“For months Richard Burr’s lead over Elaine Marshall and Cal Cunningham was
artificially inflated because of their low name recognition,” said Dean Debnam, President
of Public Policy Polling. “With the primary campaign under their belts both Democrats
are now looking very competitive for the fall.”

PPP surveyed 631 North Carolina voters from May 8th to 10th. The survey’s margin of
error is +/-3.9%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may
introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.

More on the poll at:
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_NC_511.pdf

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