As national Democratic officials continue to cast about for a candidate to unite behind in North Carolina's Senate contest, the campaign of Secretary of State Elaine Marshall (D) -- who is already in the race -- released an analysis of recent polling data on Thursday that attempts to make the case for why she should be the establishment choice in the race against Sen. Richard Burr (R).

The memo by Marshall's polling firm, Lake Research Partners, draws on two recent polls to come to the conclusion that "Senator Burr is vulnerable. Voters have a net-unfavorable impression of him and a strong plurality is ready to vote for someone else. Secretary Marshall is well-liked and a strong competitor against Burr."

The memo may be an overt attempt to catch the eye of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who is often viewed as a king maker in Senate primaries.

The memo comes just days after the DSCC's top prospect in the race, Rep. Bob Etheridge (N.C.), decided to skip the Senate race and instead run for re-election in 2010. In the wake of that announcement Democratic sources indicated that the DSCC would try to get former state Sen. Cal Cunningham to reconsider his recent decision to pass on the Senate contest.

Cunningham, who is popular among progressives in the Tar Heel State, had been quietly putting together a campaign organization in recent months with the help of the DSCC.

North Carolina Rep. Bob Etheridge has decided to pass, for a second time, on the opportunity to take on Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr.

"Ultimately, I believe that I can best help the people of North Carolina during this economic downturn by remaining in the House of Representatives and continuing to serve as North Carolina's only member of the House Ways and Means Committee," Etheridge said in a written statement.

The congressman's decision to seek re-election to his House seat is the latest, and maybe the biggest, recruiting set back for Democrats in a state that party officials had hoped would be a top pick-up opportunity next year.

Three Democratic candidates -- North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Durham attorney Kenneth Lewis and businessman Frank Deaton II have filed to run against Burr, but it's no secret that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was aggressively recruiting Etheridge.

Scratch one North Carolina Democrat from the list of possible challengers to incumbent Sen. Richard M. Burr in 2010.

Cal Cunningham, a former state senator, informed supporters Monday night that he will pass on the race. Cunningham had been generating interest among Democratic Party leaders as a possible recruit should Rep. Bob Etheridge decline to run.

The mayor of Hendersonville, N.C., says he is ready to challenge Rep. Heath Shuler in 2010.

Republican Greg Newman told local news outlets of his decision on Monday.

Newman has been mayor of Hendersonville since 2005.

Elaine Marshall, North Carolina's secretary of state, announced Wednesday that she has taken the first official step to launching a bid against Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr -- giving the Democrats the top-tier challenger they have sought for one of their targeted 2010 Senate takeover bids.

Marshall filed paperwork with state officials establishing her intention to run. And Marshall campaign adviser Thomas Mills said the response in the 24 hours since has been "bigger than we thought."

"We just about couldn't handle what came in yesterday," Mills said of the donations, phone calls and e-mails pouring in to Marshall's nascent campaign. Democrats, he said, "want to have somebody to get behind against Burr."

If the zingers Democrat Cal Cunnigham was directing at freshman Sen. Richard M. Burr last week are any indication, the former state senator is getting ready to take on the Republican incumbent in 2010.

In a videotaped speech to a Democratic gathering in Charlotte now making the Internet rounds, Cunningham hit Burr early and often. "In 15 years on Capitol Hill you can't name one thing that Richard Burr has done to make your life better, and I can't either," he declared, referencing Burr's time as a senator and a congressman.

Cunningham, an Iraq War vet, noted, "During the same period of time that Richard Burr was missing more than half of his Veterans Affairs Committee hearings, I was twice called to active duty for a war that he voted to authorize with no plan to keep the peace."

There's a bumper crop of House members who are seeking other political offices in 2010 in lieu of running for re-election.

Seventeen House members are pursuing other offices, according to a CQ Politics count that has been updated to reflect the Senate candidacy announcement last week by Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La.

Eight House members are running for the Senate, eight are seeking governorships and Rep. Adam H. Putnam, R-Fla., is running for state agriculture commissioner.

The possibility that North Carolina Rep. Bob Etheridge will challenge Sen. Richard M. Burr in 2010 is still a matter of speculation. But if he does run, his strong criticism of Burr's stance on health care may be remembered as the opening salvo.

On a conference call Tuesday hosted by the Democratic National Committee, Etheridge went after Burr's health care proposal, the Patient's Choice Act, that the freshman Republican is pushing in concert with Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn as an alternative to the Democrats' health care overhaul legislation. Burr touted his bill at a private forum earlier Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C. Also in attendance were Arizona Sen. John McCain and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Etheridge said Burr's proposal represented the "same old ideas they've run out before that never gained traction."

Freshman Rep. Larry Kissell, who captured the seat in North Carolina's 8th District for the Democrats in 2008, has drawn a Republican challenger: Lou Huddleston, a businessman and retired U.S. Army colonel, who announced his candidacy Wednesday.

A 31-year Army veteran, Huddleston appears a long-shot as he enters the contest. He lost his only previous bid for public office, a 2008 state House race, to incumbent Democrat Margaret Dickson. But Republicans think he has the potential to become a credible challenger to Kissell, given his resume as a military man and a local business leader, as well as the fact that he is African-American. African-Americans make up more than a quarter of the 8th district electorate.

Huddleston appears to be the GOP's man in the 8th District, which the GOP says is its top target in the state, after other recruits decided to pass on the race. Former five-term Rep. Robin Hayes -- who lost a 2008 rematch to Kissell by 55 percent to 45 percent in 2008 after winning their 2006 contest by a razor-thin margin -- announced last Wednesday that he would forgo a comeback bid.

One North Carolina Democrat is reconsidering a Senate bid and another is looking at the race for the first time, giving the party some more options as it seeks to take out Republican incumbent Richard M. Burr in 2010.

Seven-term Rep. Bob Etheridge told the Raleigh News and Observer Wednesday that he is again mulling a challenge to Burr, after telling national Democrats to count him out earlier this year. Etheridge said has met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and planned to make a decision by September.

Etheridge is a member of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, and his moderate profile in the House would help in the traditionally right-leaning state. But he has a coveted post on the House Ways and Means Committee and admitted to the News and Observer that having to give that up for a Senate run is a definite deterrent.