Richard Burr struggling with irrelevance

Senator Richard Burr appears to be struggling with the polls that keep returning the news that most North Carolinians don't know who the heck he is. A United States Senator and he might as well be their UPS delivery person.

His poll numbers would probably be higher.

A few weeks ago, Burr responded to the early polling results:

"I think it's ridiculous to go through hypothetical head-to-heads," Burr said.

"The next election is not even something I'm thinking about. Nor should I, until I know who I'm running against," he said.

Burr said he hasn't run any of his own polls yet.

"Why should I poll?" he asked. "I don't know who I'm running against."

He thought it was so ridiculous that he immediately contracted to get a poll in the field. I guess it's only ridiculous if someone else is doing the polling, right?

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) — who has been battered on a near-monthly basis by poor polling numbers — finally released his own survey this week that reveal the messages he is testing for his 2010 re-election race.

Burr’s poll, which was in the field June 15 and 16, showed that more than half of North Carolina voters disapproved of the job that Congress is doing under Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Further, the poll found that more than half of voters preferred a Republican Congress to “act as a check and balance to keep the Democrats from going too far” over a Democratic Congress that would “help President Obama enact his agenda.”

Although Burr’s poll showed him winning in a race against Democratic Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, the survey question was not a standard head-to-head ballot test but was instead preceded by questions about which of the two could better serve as a “check and balance on the policies of President Obama.”

Stay tuned for Burr's next poll where they ask respondents the really tough question: Is Richard Burr kinda OK?