Newly-appointed New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has "her work cut out for her" when it comes to standing for re-election in 2010, according to a Siena Research Institute poll conducted Jan. 25-27.

The survey of New York registered voters said 21 percent are prepared to support her in 2010 while 29 percent prefer someone else. A big part of that work she has to do is with her own party where that figure is 20 percent for her in 2010 and 28 percent against, (by contrast, 24 percent of Republicans say they would support her while 28 percent are opposed). Among Democrats, 63 percent would like to see someone challenge her in a primary while only 11 percent want to see her run unopposed.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed by a deranged gunman and is a strong gun control advocate, has already said she'd oppose Gillibrand if no one else did because of Gillibrand's support of gun owners' rights.

Despite criticism of the way New York Gov. David Paterson handled the filling of Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat, more New York registered voters blamed Caroline Kennedy and her aides for the flame-out of her Senate bid than they do Paterson or his team, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted Jan. 23-25.

Forty-nine percent blamed the Kennedy side compared to 15 person who singled out Paterson, 12 percent blamed both equally and 24 percent had no opinion.

"As popular as Barack Obama" is a label coveted these days by any politician - and maybe even more prized by incumbents of the beleaguered Republican Party who face re-election contests in 2010, the first midterm election year of Democrat Obama's presidency. And according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll in Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist is one of those Republicans who can wear Obama-like approval ratings as a badge of honor.

The survey of 1,370 Florida voters taken Jan. 14-19 showed 67 percent of respondents held a favorable opinion of Crist, who was elected governor in the 2006 race to succeed term-limited Republican Jeb Bush. Those who said they disapproved totaled 21 percent, with 10 percent saying they did not know enough to answer and 2 percent declining to state an opinion.

These numbers for Crist, two years into his term, were comparable to those enjoyed by Obama in Florida during his pre-inauguration national "honeymoon." Obama scored a 66 percent favorable rating in the poll taken in the six days immediately before his swearing-in, well above the 51 percent of the vote he took in scoring a key electoral vote victory in Florida last November. While 48 percent of the state's voters favored Republican John McCain for president, just 16 percent of the poll respondents said they disapproved of Obama, with 12 percent saying they didn't know enough and 5 percent declining to answer.

Republican Sen. Mel Martinez's decision not to seek re-election in 2010 puts Florida in a similar position to Ohio where GOP incumbent George Voinovich decided not to run: open seats with a field of potential candidates who are not all that well known, and where there is not a dominant favorite. That state of affairs was underscored when former Gov. Jeb Bush on the Republican side decided not to run as did Democrat Alex Sink who holds the position equivalent to state treasurer.

A Quinnipiac University survey conducted Jan. 14-19 says that the decision not to run by Sink, who would have had a small advantage among Democrats and matched up well with the best-known GOP candidate, "leaves a wide open scramble for the Democrat nomination."